Identifies a natural typology of drinking partnerships in early marriage. Results show an interpretable five-cluster solution that evidenced significant and meaningful relationships with both marital functioning and drinking consequences. This multidimensional notion of a drinking partnership may be useful in future efforts to understand the…

Examined data from National Survey of Families and Households to examine partner choice in cohabitations and marriages. Results support view of cohabitation as distinct type of relationship from marriage. Compared to recently married persons, cohabitors showed greater propensity to choose partner with same education and lesser propensity to choose…

Analyzed marital satisfaction of wives from the perspective of integrating the combined effects of preschool children, employment, social class, and marital social desirability. Rather than indicating a mild problem for all wives, the family life-cycle data actually reflected a very severe source of distress for a small group of wives. (Author/ABL)

As high school seniors, the soon-to-be wives and mothers rank low among their classmates on academic aptitude, scholastic performance, and socioeconomic status. Subsequent educational shortfalls are due to these preexisting differences and to family burdens. Marriage has more adverse effects than parenthood. (Author/ABL)

Uses meta-analysis of five previous studies and a replication survey of 685 married men to explore the relationship between wives' employment and husbands' well-being. No direct relationship was found but family income and percentage of income contributed by the husband may be mediating variables. (JAC)

Assessed the relationship between complexity level and marital communication response in 28 married adults who role-played situations including chores and communication or relationship issues. Results showed cognitive complexity was predictive of effective responses only in situations involving a couple's relationship. (JAC)

Investigated the relationship between cohabitation and subsequent marital quality in 309 recently married couples. Results showed that having cohabited premaritally was associated with significantly lower perceived quality of communication for wives and significantly lower marital satisfaction for both spouses. (LLL)

Studied conjugal role segregation in 150 married women from intact families in working-class community. Found that, although involvement in dense kinship networks was associated with conjugal role segregation, respondents' attitudes toward marital roles and phase of family cycle when young children were present were more powerful predictors of…

Identified six types of very long-term marriages: stable/positive, stable/neutral, stable/negative, curvilinear, continuous decline, and continuous increase. Case records of 17 marriages lasting between 50 and 69 years revealed that nearly 75 percent of the marriages showed either curvilinear or stable/positive patterns. Found no continuous…

This study examined the link between conflict resolution styles (conflict engagement, withdrawal, and compliance) and each spouse's marital satisfaction for 155 couples. Overall, husbands' marital satisfaction was more frequently affected by how their wives resolved conflicts than wives' marital satisfaction was affected by how their husbands…

Examined reciprocal relationship between marital interaction and marital happiness with three-wave panel study of national sample of married persons. Overall findings support hypothesis that there exists positive reciprocal relationship between marital interaction and marital happiness, particularly demonstrating important role of marital…

Used data from National Survey of Families and Households to examine cohabitation. Couples who cohabited before marriage reported lower quality marriages, lower commitment to institution of marriage, more individualistic views of marriage (wives only), and greater likelihood of divorce than couples who did not cohabit. Effects were generally…

Examined data from 153 married couples to determine their patterns of coping with stress and association between couples' coping and psychological symptoms in each spouse. Found pattern of dyadic coping marked by strong reliance on escape-avoidance coping by both husband and wife was associated with high levels of symptoms in both spouses.…

Examined how changes in family composition due to death of spouse, and subsequent remarriage, affected economic status. Found that death of spouse translated into substantial economic loss, especially for widows. Economic gains for both widows and widowers who remarried were generally large compared to those of persons who remained widowed for at…

Examined national sample of 680 married couples. Found that husbands believed in innate sex roles significantly more than wives did. Each partner's beliefs directly influenced the other's, controlling for age, education, and religion. The more one spouse believed that sex roles were innate, the more the other tended to believe in them also.…