Lifespan theoretical notions have long acknowledged that regulative capacities of the self are relatively robust well into old age. This general trend notwithstanding, people often differ substantially throughout life in their levels of and change trajectories in self-esteem. One prime contributing factor may be perceptions of social inclusion.…

Often in sociology, researchers are confronted with nonnormal variables whose joint distribution they wish to explore. Yet, assumptions of common measures of dependence can fail or estimating such dependence is computationally intensive. This article presents the copula method for modeling the joint distribution of two random variables, including…

We examined the effects of self-esteem development on the development of relationship satisfaction in 2 samples of couples. Study 1 used data from both partners of 885 couples assessed 5 times over 12 years, and Study 2 used data from both partners of 6,116 couples assessed 3 times over 15 years. The pattern of results was similar across the 2…

Using longitudinal data from the National Survey of Families and Households and both wife- and husband-reported data (N = 4,574 couples), this study examined how financial well-being, financial disagreements, and perceptions of financial inequity were associated with the likelihood of divorce. When financial disagreements were in the model,…

Research on divorce during the past decade has focused on a range of topics, including the predictors of divorce, associations between divorce and the well-being of children and former spouses, and interventions for divorcing couples. Methodological advances during the past decade include a greater reliance on nationally representative…

Participants included 202 newlywed couples who reported retrospectively about child maltreatment experiences (sexual abuse, physical abuse, psychological abuse, and neglect) and whose marital functioning was assessed 3 times over a 2-year period. Decreased marital satisfaction at T1 was predicted by childhood physical abuse, psychological abuse,…

A sense of mastery is an important component of psychological health and wellbeing across the life-span; however, relatively little is known about the development of mastery during childhood and adolescence. Utilizing prospective, longitudinal data from 444 adolescent sibling pairs and their parents, our conceptual model proposes that family…

This one-year longitudinal study carried out on a sample of 232 older husband caregivers sought to describe changes in psychological distress and self-perceived health, and to examine relationships between factors drawn primarily from Pearlin's model of caregiving and changes in these two health outcomes. Prediction analyses shows that nearly two…

Predictors of increases in marital distress in the first 3 years of marriage were identified for 310 couples. Predictors for wives were low income, living with stepchildren, many rewards, few costs, and high emotional investment. Predictors for husbands were few months of living together. For both husbands and wives, few years of education and not…

We are only beginning to unravel the mechanisms by which the division of domestic tasks varies in its sociopolitical context. Selecting couples from the German SocioEconomic Panel who married between 1990 and 1995 in the former East and West regions of Germany and following them until 2000 (N= 348 couples), I find evidence of direct, interaction,…

Explores the usefulness of "marital alternatives" as a dimension in explaining marital stability, using longitudinal data from a panel of married, White, urban couples from 16 urban areas. Results indicated the dimension of marital alternatives appeared to be a better predictor of marital disruption than marital satisfaction. (Author/RC)

Estimated parameters of the trajectory of change in marital quality over first 10 years of marriage. Found that both spouses started trajectories of change at fairly high levels of marital quality, with quality declining rapidly in the early years, stabilizing, and then declining again. Individual-differences variables predicted initial status of…

Couples planning marriage participated in a longitudinal study examining the predictive power of communication ratings. Intact couples (N=9) completed data at three follow-up points. Results indicated the more positively premarital couples rated their communication, the more satisfied they were with their relationship five-and-a-half-years later.…

This study sought to assess the effectiveness of a marital distress prevention program for couples by examining how marital quality, especially marital competencies such as dyadic coping, could be improved by means of a prevention program focusing on the enhancement of coping resources (Couples Coping Enhancement Training). The study consisted of…

This study analyzes a couple-level ("N" = 581), longitudinal data set of employees to provide evidence about technology use over time, the factors that predict use, and the potential for a spouse to influence an individual's use. Although longitudinal usage patterns suggest a trend toward adoption and use of e-mail, the Internet, cell phones, and…