Interviews with 20 women from paternally incestuous families revealed that they felt a moderate degree of conflict between their roles as mother and wife. Strategies for coping with the conflict are categorized (social role redefinition, interpersonal role redefinition, intrapersonal role redefinition, or reactive role behavior) and evaluated in…

Views of parents with mental retardation about their relationships and social support for parenting were explored. Based on two years of involvement with six couples, it was found that parents preferred support from partners, followed by family members, and then professionals. Support was sometimes viewed as a restraint. (Author/SW)

The direct and moderating effects of coping mechanisms used by 314 spouses in dual-income marriages were examined. The direct effects of coping on well-being were minimal; however, coping moderated several effects of role conflict and role overload on spouse's well-being. (JPS)

Examines the degree to which an individual's propensity to experience emotional distress and restraint are predictive of grief intensity in a sample of older widow(er)s (n=51). Characteristic distress was found to be a significant predictor of present grief intensity, whereas repressive defensiveness was found to predict past grief, as recalled…

Investigated hypothesis that cohabitors are a select group in ways that predispose them to divorce. Found that premarital cohabitation was associated with a greater risk of divorce even after accounting for the effects of parental divorce, marital status of first spouse, age heterogamy, and the presence of stepchildren. (RJM)

An Israeli survey of 209 men and 136 women (96 percent response) found women were less work centered than men of intermediate socioeconomic status (SES)--these women were usually wives, mothers, and employed; women's country of origin was relevant to work role centrality; and SES, values, and job satisfaction explained centrality for men, SES,…

Examined changes over time in marital relations of Israeli combat veterans who sustained combat stress reaction (CSR) during 1982 Lebanon War. Interviewed wives of CSR veterans and non-CSR veterans. CRS couples were characterized at four points in time by more conflict, less intimacy, less consensus, less cohesion, and less expressiveness that…

Related cognitions (ambiguity of stepfather role, optimistic perspective on stepfamilies, and myths about stepfamilies) to satisfaction with (step)parent-child relationships and family/marital/personal life in 27 mother/stepfather pairs. Compared to stepfathers, mothers had more optimistic perspective on stepfamilies, were less likely to endorse…

Investigated extent to which perceptions of global and specific equity/inequity were associated with dissatisfaction, disagreement between spouses, partners' regard for one another, and gender-role attitudes for 82 couples over age 60. Studied differential influence of equity/inequity for well-being of women and men. (Author/NB)

Compared communications patterns and conflicts over psychological distance in 25 nondistressed couples, 15 clinic couples, and 22 divorcing couples. Compared with nondistressed couples, both distressed groups had less mutual constructive communication, more avoidance of communication, more demand/withdraw communication, and more conflict over…

Surveyed 233 family caregivers for brain-impaired adults. Spousal caregivers (both husbands and wives) devoted much time to caregiving. Most caregivers received little assistance from other family members and friends, but husbands received more than others. Employed spouses received more paid help than unemployed spouses; employment did not affect…

Examined farm families with and without employed wife on economic and relationship status. Data from 1,067 farm spouses revealed that, compared to families with nonemployed wives, families with employed wives had higher debt loads, wives who worked longer hours in all production, wives who were less satisfied with marital relationship, and…

Used data from national survey of 741 men and 964 women to examine life-cycle variations in satisfaction with division of household labor and relationship between satisfaction with division of household labor and marital quality. Satisfaction with division of labor was more important in explaining marital happiness and conflict than were age,…

A sample of 113 married agriculture teachers (53 percent) and their spouses competed the Purdue Teacher Opinionaire and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale. Spouses' marital satisfaction contributed to teacher job satisfaction. Presence of children and salaries under $25,000 showed a negative relationship with job satisfaction. (SK)

Husbands of wives with (n=22) or without (n=23) history of depressive disorder indicated their attributions about and affective reactions to real and hypothetical positive and negative events occurring to their wives, rated their wives on personality traits, and reported their own marital satisfaction. Depressed wives were rated more negatively on…