Husbands' and wives' marital quality: the role of adult attachment orientations, depressive symptoms, and conflict resolution behaviors

Although previous research has examined the role of adult attachment orientations, depressive symptoms, and conflict resolution behaviors (attacking and compromising) in marital quality, these variables have typically been considered separately. In the present study, these attributes were examined together in a community sample of 64 married couples. Correlational analyses revealed significant associations among the study variables and generally supported the hypothesized relations. When a regression series was applied to the data in order to examine indirect links between husbands' and wives' attachment orientations and their marital satisfaction, results provided some support for mediation; husbands' conflict resolution behaviors partially mediated the association between husbands' depressive symptoms and marital satisfaction. Interestingly, wives' conflict resolution behaviors did not mediate the association between wives' depressive symptoms and marital satisfaction. Instead, a different pattern was found; wives' conflict resolution behaviors partially mediated the association between wives' attachment anxiety and marital satisfaction. Findings highlight the importance of considering husbands' and wives' attributes separately and suggest directions for future research on this topic.     

Problem-solving skills and affective expressions as predictors of change in marital satisfaction

Specific skills and affective expressions coded from the problem-solving interactions of 172 newlywed couples were examined in relation to 8-wave, 4-year trajectories of marital satisfaction. Effects varied as a function of whether husbands' versus wives' topics were under discussion and whether husbands' versus wives' satisfaction was predicted, but results indicate that skills, affect, and their statistical interaction account for unique variance in rates of change in marital satisfaction. The interaction between positive affect and negative skills was particularly robust, indicating that (a) low levels of positive affect and high levels of negative skills foreshadowed particularly rapid rates of deterioration and that (b) high levels of positive affect buffered the effects of high levels of negative skills. Findings suggest specific targets for intervention in programs for developing marriages.     

Gender differences in alcohol and substance use relapse

This review explores gender differences in relapse and characteristics of relapse events in alcohol and substance use. For alcohol, relapse rates were similar across gender. Although negative mood, childhood sexual abuse, alcohol-related self-efficacy, and poorer coping strategies predicted alcohol relapse, gender did not moderate these effects. Gender did moderate the association between marriage and alcohol relapse. For women, marriage and marital stress were risk factors for alcohol relapse; among men, marriage lowered relapse risk. This gender difference in the role of marriage in relapse may be a result of partner differences in problem drinking. Alcoholic women are more likely to be married to heavy drinking partners than are alcoholic men; thus, alcoholic women may be put at risk of relapse by marriage and alcoholic men may be protected by marriage. There are fewer studies documenting gender differences in substance abuse relapse so conclusions are limited and tentative. In contrast to the lack of gender differences in alcohol relapse rates, women appear less likely to experience relapse to substance use, relative to men. Women relapsing to substance use appear to be more sensitive to negative affect and interpersonal problems. Men, in contrast, may be more likely to have positive experiences prior to relapse.     

Using a vulnerability-stress-adaptation framework to predict physical aggression trajectories in newlywed marriage

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 103 couples collected 4 times over the first 3 years of marriage were analyzed with an actor-partner interdependence model and structural equation modeling techniques. Personality traits of husbands predicted their own physical aggression and stress trajectories, as well as their wives' levels of stress and physical aggression. Personality traits of wives predicted their levels of stress and physical aggression and predicted changes in their physical aggression over time. Both husbands' and wives' changes in stress predicted changes in physical aggression over time. Implications for employment of a vulnerability-stress-adaptation model in the study of physical aggression and for improvement of the efficacy of therapies targeting physical aggression in intimate relationships are delineated.     

Discrepant substance use and marital functioning in newlywed couples

The configuration of partners' drinking patterns may be most critical to marital functioning. Implications of discrepant husband and wife smoking, drinking, and drug use for relationship quality at the transition to marriage were examined. Participants were 642 couples entering into their 1st marriage. Separate, self-administered questionnaires were completed at home by each partner. Both husbands and wives in couples in which only 1 partner drank heavily or used drugs reported significantly lower marital quality than other spouses. Husband Use x Wife Use interactions were not significant for cigarette use, alcohol use, or regular drinking. Discrepancies in more deviant substance use behaviors may be most relevant to marital functioning.     

Need similarity in husbands and wives who are receiving methadone maintenance therapy

Investigated whether a common dimension of need similarity underlies marriages in which both partners are receiving methadone maintenance therapy. Thirty couples who were receiving methadone maintenance therapy for their heroin addiction were asked to complete the Marital Adjustment Test and Adjective Check List. A canonical correlation analysis was performed between the husbands' and wives' Adjective Check List need scores. One dimension was found that was related positively to the husbands' needs for Dominance, Affiliation, Heterosexuality, Exhibition, and Change, whereas the same dimension was related positively to the wives' needs for Achievement, Dominance, Endurance, and Intraception. It was concluded that Dominance revealed a complementary relationship in which the marriage was meeting the husbands' social needs and the wives' intrapsychic needs.     

Relationship between behavioral marital therapy outcome and process variables

This study was conducted to identify therapist and client behaviors associated with a positive response to social learning-based behavioral marital therapy. A sample of 32 couples receiving treatment was examined. Immediately after each therapy session, the therapist, husband, and wife independently completed process rating forms that measured therapist and client behaviors during the session. Composite scales, derived from these ratings, were entered into multiple regression equations to examine their relationship with posttherapy marital satisfaction. After controlling for pretherapy marital satisfaction and the other predictor variables, therapists', husbands', and wives' ratings of positive client behavior (i.e., collaboration, active participation, and homework compliance) were positively associated with therapy outcome. Implications for marital therapy and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Hostility and erosion of marital quality during early marriage

We examined the association between hostility and longitudinal changes in marital quality in a sample of 53 newlywed couples who were in their first marriages and were without children. Spouses' reports of marital quality were assessed initially at an average of 5 months into marriage and, thereafter, at three follow-up points approximately 1, 2, and 3 years subsequent to the date of marriage. Individual growth models were computed to assess the rate of change of marital quality. Hostility among husbands was significantly associated with linear decreases in their own, and their wives', reports of marital quality, even after controlling for the passage of time and the correlated variable of neuroticism. Results are consistent with the psychosocial vulnerability model of hostility and illness (Smith,Health Psychol. 11: 139–150, 1992), which posits that associations between hostility and heightened risk for morbidity and mortality are partially mediated by poor-quality relationships that develop as a consequence of the abrasive interpersonal properties of hostility.     

Longitudinal relations between parental drinking problems, family functioning, and child adjustment

Relations between maternal and paternal problem drinking symptoms and destructive marital conflict, parenting problems, and children's internalizing and externalizing problems were investigated. Participants were community families with a child in kindergarten who completed questionnaire measures at baseline (N=235), 1 year later (N=227), and 2 years later (N=215). Structural equation modeling revealed that paternal problem drinking at Time 1 was associated with greater destructive marital conflict 1 year later. In turn, destructive marital conflict was related to decreased parental warmth and increased parental psychological control; these parenting problems were associated with greater child internalizing and externalizing problems at the third time point. Further analyses revealed that the indirect effects of paternal drinking on children's adjustment were significant, and that relations remained even after including autoregressive effects. Findings are discussed in terms of family process models for relations between parental drinking and child adjustment problems.     

Perceived partner reactions to diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer: impact on psychosocial and psychosexual adjustment

Two studies examined breast cancer patients' perceptions of their partners' reactions to their diagnosis and treatment as influences on 3 aspects of patients' well-being: psychosexual adjustment, emotional distress, and marital satisfaction. Study 1, cross-sectional, indicated that partner initiation of sex, frequency of sex, a positive 1st sexual experience after treatment, and especially perception of the partner's emotional involvement in the relationship, were relevant to these outcomes. Study 2, longitudinal, confirmed many of these findings in prospective tests across 1 year of recovery after surgery. Partner involvement prospectively predicted all 3 outcomes. Partner initiation of sex predicted greater marital satisfaction; partner adverse reaction to the scar predicted less marital satisfaction. Rated quality of the 1st sexual experience after treatment predicted less distress. The pattern suggests that women's impressions of their partners' emotional involvement after surgery for breast cancer forecast their adjustment in sexual, marital, and emotional arenas over the following year.     

Family functioning and binge drinking among Italian adolescents

Limited studies have sought to describe binge drinking among adolescents and even fewer studies have attempted to examine whether family functioning, family communication and satisfaction could be associated with alcohol abuse. Our sample was made up of 726 Italian adolescents between the ages of 16 and 18. According to previous research, adolescents were categorized into non-drinkers, social, binge and heavy drinkers. Results showed that social, binge and heavy drinkers differ in terms of some drinking variables, family functioning, family communication and satisfaction.     

Till violence does us part: the differing roles of communication and aggression in predicting adverse marital outcomes.

Measures of communication and aggression, taken from 56 newlywed couples, were used to predict marital outcomes 4 years later. Aggression discriminated between separated or divorced couples and those who remained married. In contrast, communication discriminated between couples who were maritally satisfied after 4 years and those who were married but dissatisfied. Thus, over the 1st 4 years of marriage, marital satisfaction and dissolution appear to be predicted by separate factors. These results remained unchanged after controlling for initial marital satisfaction. Additional analyses showed that 68% of the marriages could be accurately classified into their outcome groups using communication and aggression variables. These results help to integrate prior marital research on communication and aggression, and they suggest that it may be necessary to focus on both factors in efforts to strengthen marriages and prevent divorce.     

煤矿工人的饮酒行为及相关因素研究

目的研究影响煤矿工人饮酒行为的相关因素,为开展针对性的心理行为干预提供依据。方法以自述有饮酒行为的煤矿工人为调查对象,采用饮酒问卷(ADS)、密西根酒精依赖调查表(MAST)和一般情况调查表进行测评与调查,分析饮酒行为的相关因素。结果不同文化程度的煤矿工人在ADS总分、MA ST总分、自我或他人所认识到的饮酒问题、婚姻家庭问题上有显著性差异(P<0.05或<0.01);文化程度与ADS总分、MAST总分呈显著正相关;婚姻状况与因饮酒问题寻求帮助呈显著正相关;父母是否饮酒与自我或他人所认识到的饮酒问题、因饮酒问题寻求帮助、婚姻家庭问题呈显著负相关;生活满意程度与ADS总分、自我或他人所认识到的饮酒问题、婚姻家庭问题呈显著负相关;多元逐步回归分析显示,父母是否饮酒和生活满意度对自我或他人所认识到的饮酒问题、婚姻家庭问题有良好的预测作用(R2=0.329,F=7.837,P<0.01;R2=0.391,F=10.21,P<0.01),父母是否饮酒和婚姻状况对因饮酒问题寻求帮助有良好的预测作用(R2=0.281,F=6.06,P<0.01)。结论不同的文化程度、婚姻状况、父母是否饮酒和生活满意度对煤矿工人的饮酒行为有明显影响,对心理干预提供了有效依据。     

Husbands' and wives' marital adjustment, verbal aggression, and physical aggression as longitudinal predictors of physical aggression in early marriage

Marital adjustment, verbal aggression, and physical aggression have long been associated in the marital literature, but the nature of their associations remains unclear. In this study, the authors examined these 3 constructs as risk factors for physical aggression during the first 2 years of marriage in 634 couples recruited as they applied for marriage licenses. Couples completed assessments at the time of marriage and at their 1st and 2nd anniversaries. Results of path analyses suggest that prior verbal aggression and physical aggression by both partners are important longitudinal predictors of physical aggression but do not support the role of marital adjustment as a unique predictor of subsequent physical aggression. Contrary to prior research, results also failed to support physical aggression as a unique predictor of marital adjustment.     

Marriage duration, marital adjustment and psychological symptoms: a cross-sectional study

One hundred and nine couples completed questionnaire measures of psychological symptoms, personality, and marital adjustment. They were divided into groups of short, intermediate, and long marriage duration. Psychological symptoms and marital adjustment remained fairly stable over time, although wives scored significantly worse than husbands on most measures in the intermediate duration group. In the short marriages, half the variance in marital satisfaction was predicted by the partner's marital questionnaire score, but when this variable was eliminated from the regression equation, psychological symptoms (phobic anxiety in wives and depression in husbands) were the main predictors of marital satisfaction. In the intermediate group, hostility levels were the main predictors of marital satisfaction. In the long marriages, marital satisfaction was predicted mainly by personality factors (assertiveness in husbands and personal flexibility in wives) and by levels of generalized anxiety. The findings suggest that couples who constructively resolve difficulties in expressing hostility within marriage are more likely to remain married than those who fail to do so.     

Targeted naltrexone treatment moderates the relations between mood and drinking behavior among problem drinkers

One hundred fifty-three problem drinkers were randomly assigned to receive naltrexone 50 mg or placebo on a daily or targeted (to high-risk drinking situations) basis. Using structured nightly diaries, participants recorded negative and positive mood, desire to drink, and alcohol consumption over 8 weeks. Results indicated that individuals engaged in any drinking and heavy drinking more on days characterized by relatively higher levels of positive or negative mood states. Naltrexone attenuated the positive association between heavy drinking and both positive and negative mood, and targeted administration attenuated the positive association between heavy drinking and positive mood. There was also evidence that desire to drink mediated the effect of targeted administration on the relation between positive mood and any drinking that day. These findings underscore the utility of daily measurement for understanding the processes that underlie pharmacological interventions for problem drinking.     

夫妻人格特质与其婚姻质量的相关研究

目的 :探讨人格特质与婚姻质量的关系。方法 :采用OLSON婚姻质量问卷 (ENRICH)和卡特尔 16种个性因素问卷 (16PF)及访谈法 ,对陕西省部分地区 30 0名夫妻进行调查。结果 :夫妻人格特质与其婚姻质量水平存在一定相关 ,其中妻子的人格特质与婚姻质量水平的相关更为明显 ,且不同人格特质的妻子和丈夫在婚姻质量评价上表现出不同的特点。结论 :夫妻人格特质是影响其婚姻质量水平的重要因素之一 ,特质中不同因素所起的作用不同 ,同时也影响到婚姻质量的不同层面。     

21st birthday drinking: extremely extreme

Despite public recognition of the hazards of 21st birthday drinking, there is little empirical information concerning its prevalence, severity, and risk factors. Data from a sample of 2,518 college students suggest that 21st birthday drinking poses an extreme danger: (a) 4 of every 5 participants (83%) reported drinking to celebrate, (b) birthday drinkers indicated high levels of consumption, (c) 12% of birthday drinkers (men and women) reported consuming 21 drinks, and (d) about half of birthday drinkers exceeded their prior maximum number of drinks. Current problematic alcohol involvement and its typical correlates strongly predicted both the occurrence and severity of 21st birthday drinking. It is imperative that investigators consider a variety of potential interventions to minimize the harm associated with this rite of passage.     

Familial transmission of alcohol use: V. Drinking patterns among spouses,Tecumseh, Michigan

This study examined concordance and discordance of self-reported alcohol consumption in 184 spouse pairs drawn from a representative sample of the Tecumseh, MI community. A significant association (tau B=.57,p<.001) between self-reported alcohol consumption of husbands and that of wives was observed. Drinking daily and high maximum drinking were also significantly correlated between spouses, as were church attendance, smoking, impulsivity, and sociability. A significant association between the drinking of wives and that of their mothers-in-law was noted. The relationship between husbands' drinking and that of their fathers-in-law was marginally significant. However, three-quarters of daughters of heavy-drinking fathers (21 of 28) married abstemious men (never drank or drank lightly), while only 7% married heavy-drinking husbands. These findings lend support to the idea that a network of familial influences—both primary and secondary assortative mating—contributes to regulating adult drinking behavior.     

Couples coping with chronic illness: Women with rheumatoid arthritis and their healthy husbands

Effects of a chronic disease, rheumatoid arthritis, upon the psychological adjustment of 103 women and their healthy husbands were examined. Husbands completed scales assessing perceived vulnerability to illness and coping efficacy, burden of caring for their wives, and level of psychological adjustment. Wives completed the Ways of Coping scale, rated attributions about arthritis, and rated criticalness and supportiveness of their husbands. Husbands were also interviewed and their responses coded for critical remarks about the wife. The same variables were used to predict each partner's adjustment in order to compare factors associated with each. Hierarchical regression indicated that negative marital interaction surrounding the wife's illness was a determinant of both partners' psychological adjustment. Apart from this variable, different factors predicted husbands' and wives' mental health. Husbands were most affected by their own perceived vulnerability to disease and coping inefficacy. Wives were most affected by pain severity and how they coped with arthritis.