Objective: Marital discord has been linked to both depression and anxiety; however, our understanding of how marriage contributes to the development of internalizing symptoms is limited in scope and lacking specificity. First, it is unclear whether the marital relationship contributes to the broad dimension of internalizing symptoms as opposed to…

Objective: This study examined predictors of relationship stability over 5 years among heterosexual cohabiting and married African American couples raising an elementary-school-age child. The vulnerability-stress-adaptation model of relationships (Karney & Bradbury, 1995) guided the investigation. Contextual variables were conceptualized as…

Objective: This study investigated the association between hostility and health and whether it is moderated by the quality of an individual's primary romantic relationship. Method: Longitudinal data were provided by 184 African Americans, including 166 women. Participants averaged 38 years old and were married or in long-term marriagelike…

In this meta-analytic study, the authors examined the efficacy of marriage and relationship education (MRE) on 2 common outcomes: relationship quality and communication skills. A thorough search produced 86 codable reports that yielded 117 studies and more than 500 effect sizes. The effect sizes for relationship quality for experimental studies…

The authors used a vulnerability-stress-adaptation framework to examine personality traits and chronic stress as predictors of the developmental course of physical aggression in the early years of marriage. Additionally, personality traits and physical aggression were examined as predictors of the developmental course of chronic stress. Data from…

Discusses outcome and process research on couple therapy and integrates articles in journal's special section on couples and couples therapy into the discussion. Discussion of strengths and weaknesses of various designs concludes that within-model comparisons have been more productive in producing knowledge than between-model comparisons. Includes…

A test of emotional stability and a marital satisfaction scale were administered to 50 couples seeking help with their marriage and to 50 couples with stable marriages. For the Stable group there was a significant relationship between marital satisfaction and emotional stability, but not for the Seeking Help group. No evidence was found to support…

This exploratory study was designed to address how multiple factors drawn from varying focal models and ecological levels of influence might operate relative to each other to predict partner aggression, using data from 453 representatively sampled couples. The resulting cross-validated models predicted approximately 50% of the variance in men's…

The objective was to determine whether discrepancies between husbands' and wives' past year heavy drinking predicted decreased marital satisfaction over time. Participants (N = 634) were recruited at the time they applied for their marriage licenses. Couples completed questionnaires about their alcohol use and marital satisfaction at the time of…

Results indicated that instead of being associated with increased patient-therapist attitudinal similarity, improvement in marital therapy was associated with attitudinal convergence between the two partners in the therapist's attitudes during treatment, regardless of whether they improved or not. (Author)

Couples (N=50) were interviewed conjointly, and spouses were rated separately on a 61-item checklist to demonstrate the actuarial validity of the marital satisfaction inventory. Findings supported the basic interpretive intent of individual scales and demonstrated convergent validity. (Author)

This study examined hypotheses about the determinants of global ratings of marital satisfaction, the role of reciprocity in marital interaction, and the influence of external experiences on the marital relationship. The results are discussed with reference to previous marital research and with regard to their implications for martial therapy.…

Assessed the prevalence and frequency of marital violence for 88 male alcoholics and their wives at entry to and 1 year after completing a behavioral marital therapy (BMT) program. Although violence and prevalence decreased significantly after treatment, the alcoholics' drinking outcome status was associated with the extent of violence after BMT.…

Discusses lack of direction in study of how couples think about their relationships as resulting from lack of delineation of important cognitive variables in marital functioning, conceptual and methodological difficulties in attempts to operationalize cognitive variables, and dearth of models of marital functioning that incorporate cognitions in…

Studied 73 couples twice 4 years apart. Proposed typology of five groups of couples (validators, volatiles, avoiders, hostile, and hostile/detached) based on observational data of Time 1 resolution of conflict, specific affects, and affect sequences. Over four years, groups differed significantly in serious consideration of divorce and in…