Behavioral indices of positivity resonance associated with long-term marital satisfaction.

Personality disorders (PDs) are significantly, negatively related to marital satisfaction. We examine how maladaptive personality is related to change in marital satisfaction over time utilizing data from the St. Louis Personality and Aging Network (SPAN), a longitudinal, community-based study of personality and health in older adults. Participants were assessed at baseline for PD (self-report, informant-report, and structured interview); self- and spouse-reported relationship satisfaction assessed at baseline and five follow-ups was analyzed with latent growth curve modeling. Higher levels of PD at baseline were associated with lower self and spouse relationship satisfaction at baseline. On average, satisfaction did not change significantly over the study period, but there was significant individual variability. Higher levels of schizoid PD were protective of declines in partner's perception of satisfaction. Findings suggest that partners in long-term married unions may have adapted to the presence of their own or their spouse's level of personality pathology.

Download Full-text

Maximizing Tendencies in Marriage: Accentuating the Implications of Readily Observable Partner Characteristics for Intimates’ Satisfaction

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin ◽

10.1177/0146167219832337 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 45 (10) ◽

pp. 1468-1481

Author(s):

Juliana E. French ◽

Andrea L. Meltzer

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Marital Satisfaction ◽

Romantic Relationships ◽

Physical Attractiveness ◽

Romantic Partners ◽

Relationship Outcomes ◽

Partner Characteristics ◽

Potential Alternative ◽

Over Time

People differ in their tendencies to labor over decisions and to make choices that maximize their outcomes—a difference known as maximization. Here, we used two independent, 3-year longitudinal studies of newlywed couples to demonstrate that this individual difference in decision making has important implications for romantic relationships. Consistent with the idea that maximizers are more likely to compare their current romantic partners to potential alternative partners’ readily observable qualities, such as their physical attractiveness and status, results demonstrated that intimates’ maximization moderated the implications of these sex-differentiated variables for marital satisfaction. Specifically, maximizing men who had attractive (vs. unattractive) wives were more satisfied at the start of their marriages. Likewise, maximizing women who had high (vs. low) status husbands experienced less steep declines in satisfaction over time. These findings demonstrate that maximization has important implications for long-term romantic relationships by accentuating the effects of readily observable partner qualities on relationship outcomes.

Download Full-text

Emotion regulation and satisfaction in long-term marital relationships: The role of emotional contagion

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships ◽

10.1177/0265407518804452 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 36 (9) ◽

pp. 2880-2895

Author(s):

Silvia Mazzuca ◽

Konstantinos Kafetsios ◽

Stefano Livi ◽

Fabio Presaghi

Keyword(s):

Emotion Regulation ◽

Marital Satisfaction ◽

Cognitive Reappraisal ◽

Emotional Contagion ◽

Marital Relationships ◽

Individual Level ◽

Actor Partner Interdependence Model ◽

Regulation Of Emotion

How couples regulate their emotions and how they converge emotionally with one another can critically affect relationship quality. We examined individual differences in two different classes of interaction-relevant processes—emotion regulation (ER) and emotional contagion (EC), the tendency to catch and converge with the emotions of others—in long-term marital relationships. Results from the actor–partner interdependence model analyses indicated that (a) actors’ and partners’ levels of cognitive reappraisal (but not suppression) and EC were independently associated with higher marital satisfaction and (b) both partners’ and actors’ levels of EC moderated associations between cognitive reappraisal (but not suppression) and marital satisfaction, such that this association significantly increased for lower levels of EC. EC at couple level had a direct effect on marital satisfaction and overrode individual-level effects of EC. These results indicate that both automatic (EC) and controlled (ER) processes have independent and conjoint effects on marital satisfaction in long-wed couples and, to an extent, coincide in attempts to synchronize couples’ emotional linkage. The results point to intrapersonal and interpersonal mechanisms in the regulation of emotion in longer term marital relationships.

Download Full-text

Locus of Control and Marital Satisfaction in Long-Term Marriages

Families in Society The Journal of Contemporary Social Services ◽

10.1606/1044-3894.3393 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 78 (6) ◽

pp. 624-631 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Paul L. Camp ◽

Lawrence H. Ganong

Keyword(s):

Locus Of Control ◽

Marital Satisfaction ◽

Interaction Effect ◽

Internal Locus ◽

Internal Locus Of Control ◽

Family Practitioners ◽

Control Orientation ◽

Competing Hypotheses ◽

The Relationship

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between spousal locus-of-control orientation and marital satisfaction. Two competing hypotheses were examined. The similar ity hypothesis states that spouses with similar locus-of-control orientation will be more satisfied with their marriage than will those with dissimilar orientations. The internality hypothesis postulates that couples in which both partners have an internal locus-of-control orientation will be more satisfied than will other couples. The similarity hypothesis was not supported by the results. The data were more consistent with the internality hypothesis, although the interaction effect shows that one's internality is more important than the partner's internal locus of control. Implications of these findings for family practitioners are discussed.

Download Full-text

Longitudinal Test of Forgiveness and Perceived Forgiveness as Mediators between Religiosity and Marital Satisfaction in Long-Term Marital Relationships

American Journal of Family Therapy ◽

10.1080/01926187.2018.1547667 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 46 (4) ◽

pp. 356-374 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Andrew Rose ◽

Shayne Anderson ◽

Rick Miller ◽

Loren Marks ◽

Trevan Hatch ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Marital Satisfaction ◽

Marital Relationships

Download Full-text

Marital Satisfaction and Personality Traits in Long-Term Marriages

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e639222009-001 ◽

2009 ◽

Author(s):

Daniel L. Segal ◽

Erlene Rosowsky ◽

Katherine D. King ◽

Frederick L. Coolidge ◽

Jeremy Simenson

Keyword(s):

Marital Satisfaction ◽

Personality Traits

Download Full-text

Effects of a Military Overseas Peacekeeping Deployment on Marital Quality, Satisfaction, and Stability

Psychological Reports ◽

10.2466/pr0.2000.87.3.815 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 87 (3) ◽

pp. 815-821 ◽

Cited By ~ 26

Author(s):

Walter R. Schumm ◽

D. Bruce Bell ◽

Paul A. Gade

Keyword(s):

Marital Satisfaction ◽

Effect Size ◽

Marital Quality ◽

Marital Stability ◽

Sinai Peninsula ◽

Stable Marriages ◽

Open Question ◽

Over Time ◽

Military Lifestyle

Changes in self-reported soldier marital satisfaction and marital quality were assessed at three points in time, 1994–1997, before, during, and after a 1995 peacekeeping deployment of approximately 100 married soldiers to the Sinai peninsula. Analysis shows a moderate decline in marital satisfaction during the deployment (effect size of 0.27–0.29) but no overall change in the long term. Marital quality did not change significantly over time. Marital stability rates were especially low for soldiers who reported that their marriage was in trouble prior to the deployment. It appears that stable marriages can survive 6-mo. deployments without long-term decrements in satisfaction or quality. How many couples will continue to accept voluntarily a military lifestyle that requires frequent sacrifices of marital satisfaction as may occur during separations and deployments remains an open question, even though intentions for retention did not appear correlated with marital satisfaction or changes in marital satisfaction over the deployment in this study.

Download Full-text

Long-term Marital Satisfaction: Couples’ Narratives of the Role of Mate Selection

Journal of Client-centered Nursing Care ◽

10.32598/jccnc.6.4.337.1 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 6 (4) ◽

pp. 267-276

Author(s):

Maryam Jamalnik ◽

◽

Mohammad Reza Falsafinejad ◽

Anahita Khodabakhshi-Koolaee ◽

◽

...

Keyword(s):

Marital Satisfaction ◽

Mental Health Professionals ◽

Mate Selection ◽

Vital Role ◽

Psychiatric Nurses ◽

Traditional Societies ◽

The Stability ◽

Theoretical Saturation

Background: Long-term marital satisfaction depends on various factors in couples’ lives. Shared interests, beliefs, and goals can guarantee couples’ long and satisfying relationships. However, mate selection is one of the primary requirements for establishing a marital relationship in both modern and traditional societies. Based on the narratives of couples, the present study aimed to explore the role of mate selection in marital satisfaction. Methods: This study employed a qualitative narrative research design. The participants were couples who lived together at least for 10 years, were satisfied with their married life, and had children. They were selected through the purposive sampling method from the family entertainment centers of health houses affiliated with Qom Municipality, in 2019. The data were generated using in-depth in-person interviews. After interviewing 13 couples, theoretical saturation was obtained. The data were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed manually using the textual analytic approach. Results: The analysis of the participants’ narratives showed that the couples believed that four main themes, including spouse personality traits, shared religious beliefs, shared socioeconomic positions, and mutual respect and understanding affected their marital satisfaction. Conclusion: The couples who were satisfied with their marriage believed that realistic and correct mate selection played a vital role in the survival and stability of their marital life. It is very important to pay attention to the role and conditions of mate selection and its impact on the stability of marriage. Results from this study help counselors, couples’ therapists, mental health professionals, psychiatric nurses, and midwifery consultants prepare couples for premarital programs.

Download Full-text