"Perceiving unfairness in the family: Cause or consequence of marital distress?": Correction to Grote and Clark (2001).

Reports an error in "Perceiving unfairness in the family: Cause or consequence of marital distress" by Nancy K. Grote and Margaret S. Clark (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2001[Feb], Vol 80[2], 281-293). The key coefficients on the diagonal paths were incorrect. The corrected figures in their entirety appear in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2001-16163-008.) This research tests a model suggesting that marital distress leads individuals to scrutinize of what is given and received in the relationship. This scrutiny elicits perceptions of unfairness that maintain or exacerbate marital distress. In a 3-panel longitudinal study tracking married couples across the transition to parenthood, both wives' and husbands' reports of marital conflict and wives' marital dissatisfaction at Time 1 positively predicted perceived unfairness of the allocation of household tasks at Time 2, controlling for earlier perceptions of unfairness. In addition, there was evidence of perceived unfairness of division of labor at Time 2 predicting marital conflict and marital dissatisfaction for wives at Time 3, controlling for earlier conflict and dissatisfaction. This model of relationship distress and perceptions of unfairness is contrasted with prior interpretations of links between perceived injustice and distress in relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceiving unfairness in the family: Cause or consequence of marital distress?

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 80(3) of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (see record 2007-17568-001). The key coefficients on the diagonal paths were incorrect. The corrected figures in their entirety appear in the erratum.] This research tests a model suggesting that marital distress leads individuals to scrutinize of what is given and received in the relationship. This scrutiny elicits perceptions of unfairness that maintain or exacerbate marital distress. In a 3-panel longitudinal study tracking married couples across the transition to parenthood, both wives' and husbands' reports of marital conflict and wives' marital dissatisfaction at Time 1 positively predicted perceived unfairness of the allocation of household tasks at Time 2, controlling for earlier perceptions of unfairness. In addition, there was evidence of perceived unfairness of division of labor at Time 2 predicting marital conflict and marital dissatisfaction for wives at Time 3, controlling for earlier conflict and dissatisfaction. This model of relationship distress and perceptions of unfairness is contrasted with prior interpretations of links between perceived injustice and distress in relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family health and mental health six years after economic stress and unemployment

This study is a follow-up of 39 working class couples who were interviewed after suffering economic stress or unemployment and again six years later. Repeated measures related to economics, stress, family functioning, anxiety, and depression were collected and analyzed for couples and for husbands and wives separately. A model of long-term coping was suggested for future testing. Initially stressed families appeared to grow stronger. Mental health correlated negatively to family problems. Depressed wives seemed to maintain their depression over time if they perceived family life as stressful. Irrespective of marital problems, husbands were less likely to stay depressed.     

Who's got the power? Gender differences in partners' perceptions of influence during marital problem-solving discussions

Previous research on marital communication indicates that women have more influence in marital problem solving because they raise the issues and shape the discussion. Other studies suggest that men have the power in marital problem solving. This study re-examines power and influence from the partners' point of view. Twenty-seven couples-18 with a first child under 2, and 9 undecided about having children-were videotaped while working on a self-selected problem concerning their division of family labor. Data sources included: (a) transcribed audiotaped accounts given by each partner while viewing a videotape of their problem-solving discussion; (b) self-report questionnaires; and (c) ratings by a research team of the concordance between spouses' accounts. Husbands and wives were perceived as having a primary influence on different aspects of the discussion. Women tended to raise the issues and draw men out in the early phase of the discussion, while men controlled the content and emotional depth of the later discussion phases, and largely determined the outcome. The women's accounts emphasized that their influence in the early phase was often illusory: their behavior was shaped primarily by the effort to choose strategies that would avoid upsetting their husbands. In terms of overall satisfaction with marriage, wives had greater tolerance than their husbands for conflict in the area of division of domestic labor, but less tolerance for their husbands' domination of the discussion process. Women's marital satisfaction was higher when there was concordance between spouses in their accounts of their problem-solving discussion. This research highlights the importance of eliciting spouses' own perceptions and definitions in understanding the impact of gender-linked power differences in martial communication.     

Parenting attitudes and marital intimacy: A longitudinal analysis.

This longitudinal study examined change in 97 couples' marital intimacy over the first 3 years after the birth of a child. Participants included both first-time and experienced parents. Regardless of parity, both wives and husbands, on average, showed linear declines in marital intimacy; however, significant variability in individual trajectories was found. The study evaluated the relation between parenting attitudes, measured independently for each partner and in terms of agreement between partners, and individual differences in the level and trajectory of marital intimacy. For both wives and husbands, higher perceived difficulty with parenting was related to lower initial levels of marital intimacy. Wives whose husbands held more traditional attitudes regarding child rearing and those whose beliefs about child rearing differed from the beliefs of their partners experienced steeper declines in intimacy over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marriage and the spiritual realm: The role of proximal and distal religious constructs in marital functioning.

Ninety-seven couples completed questionnaires about their involvement in joint religious activities and their perceptions regarding the sanctification of marriage, including perceived sacred qualities of marriage and beliefs about the manifestation of God in marriage. In contrast to individual religiousness and religious homogamy (distal religious constructs), these proximal religious variables directly reflect an integration of religion and marriage, and they were associated with greater global marital adjustment, more perceived benefits from marriage, less marital conflict, more verbal collaboration, and less use of verbal aggression and stalemate to discuss disagreements for both wives and husbands. The proximal measures also added substantial unique variance (adjusted R2 change ranged from .06 to .48) to specific aspects of marital functioning after controlling demographic factors and distal religious variables in hierarchical regression analyses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Widening spheres of impact: The role of forgiveness in marital and family functioning.

This study examined relations between aspects of family functioning and positive and negative dimensions of forgiveness. Increased understanding of one's partner and decreased anger about betrayal characterize positive forgiveness, whereas experiences such as holding a grudge and desiring revenge indicate negative forgiveness. The sample included 87 wives and 74 husbands who reported experiencing a significant betrayal, their partners, and their adolescent children. Analyses of reported forgiveness revealed that more negative forgiveness was associated with lower marital satisfaction for husbands and wives; trust partially mediated this relationship for husbands and wives. Greater positive forgiveness reported by husbands and wives predicted their own reports of a stronger parenting alliance, whereas greater negative forgiveness reported by husbands and wives predicted their spouses' reports of a weaker parenting alliance. For wives, more negative forgiveness also predicted higher levels of children's perceived parental conflict, and parents' reported conflict mediated this association for wives. Findings suggest that forgiveness of a marital betrayal is significantly associated with marital satisfaction, the parenting alliance, and children's perceptions of parental marital functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anxiety disorders and marital quality.

Compared perceived marital quality among couples in which neither, one, or both spouses met criteria for an anxiety disorder. Phobic husbands and their wives reported poorer marital quality than did other spouses. Husbands' panic disorders had similar but weaker effects on perceived marital quality, and wives' panic disorders predicted poor perceived marital quality by husbands. Wives with generalized anxiety disorder perceived their marriages to be less satisfying than did other wives. The effects of husbands' generalized anxiety disorders were strongest in the presence of comorbid depression or alcohol or drug dependence but the effects of husbands' phobias and of panic disorders did not vary with comorbidity. Spouse concordance for phobias was related to more favorable marital reports but concordance for other anxiety disorders was unrelated to marital quality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marital interaction of agoraphobic women: A controlled, behavioral observation study.

Married couples with a female agoraphobic spouse (n = 22) were compared with demographically similar community control couples (n = 21) on self-report and observational measures of marital interaction. Consistent with hypotheses, husbands of agoraphobic women were more critical of their wives than were control husbands, and clinical couples were less likely to engage in positive problem solution than control couples. Contrary to hypothesis, clinical husbands were not less supportive than control husbands. Where general measures of marital distress were concerned, clinical couples, relative to control couples, evinced more distress by self-report, by their higher rate of negative nonverbal behavior, and by their longer sequences of negative exchanges. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marital violence: Characteristics of abusive couples.

The Short Marital Adjustment Test, short form of the Attitudes Toward Women Scale, Short Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test, and measures of assertion were administerd to 52 abused wives (AWs) and 20 abusive husbands (AHs) who were seen at a center that specializes in domestic violence problems. Comparison data were collected from 20 couples with satisfactory marriages and 20 maritally dysfunctional nonviolent couples. Results show that although AWs and AHs were differentiated from satisfactorily married couples on almost every measure, when comparisons were made with nonabused wives in marital therapy, no measures yielded significant between-group differences. Three variables differentiated AHs from nonabusive husbands with marital difficulties: (a) AHs were less assertive with their wives, (b) they were more likely to have been abused children, and (c) they were more likely to have witnessed parental spouse abuse in their families of origin. Alcoholism and conservatism characterized the men who would not come for therapy with their AWs. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marital quality, coping with conflict, marital complaints, and affection in couples with a depressed wife.

This study compared 3 groups of women--outpatient depressed, inpatient depressed, and community control--and their husbands on a range of variables including marital functioning and styles of coping with conflict. Outpatient depressed couples reported greater marital distress and more destructive and less constructive tactics for resolving conflict than did community control couples. They also were more likely to have been previously married and to express regrets about having married their current husbands. There were smaller and less consistent differences for couples with inpatient depressed spouses, although inpatient couples with younger wives were similar to outpatient depressed couples. Both groups of depressed women and their husbands reported fewer expressions of affection and more complaints about the marriage than did control couples. Results are discussed in terms of interpersonal perspectives on depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differences between couples who end their marriage by fault or no-fault legal procedures.

Spouses from 53 couples who ended their marriage by dissolution (DS), a form of no-fault divorce, were compared with spouses from 59 couples who ended their marriage by fault-based divorce (DV). DV husbands were younger than DS husbands. DV couples were less likely to have pooled finances, and they had more sons than did DS couples. For growth curves over the first 4 years of marriage, relative to DS wives, DV wives had lower starting levels for liking of spouse, trust, and marital quality; higher starting levels for dysfunctional beliefs about relationships and psychological distress; weaker declines in extrinsic motives for being married; and stronger declines for love for spouse. Relative to DS husbands, DV husbands showed a stronger increase in dysfunctional beliefs about relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceiving the division of family work to be unfair: Do social comparisons, enjoyment, and competence matter?

Past research has revealed that women, working or not, perform more family labor (i.e., housework and child care) than do men. Yet, women often do not perceive this as unfair. Drawing on the theoretical work of L. Thompson (1991) and B. Major (1993), the author hypothesized that this paradox might be explained by women perceiving greater fairness in the lopsided division of family work (a) when they compare the amount of family work they do with other women (who perform similar amounts) rather than with the spouse; (b) when they enjoy performing family work; and/or (c) when they and their spouses believe that the are especially competent at family work. Data from a 3-panel, longitudinal study of married couples expecting their first child were consistent with the second and third predictions but not the first. Further, prospective analyses suggested that perceiving inequity in family work leads wives and husbands to make more frequent comparisons with the spouse and sometimes with same-sex others. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The nature and predictors of the trajectory of change in marital quality for husbands and wives over the first 10 years of marriage.

Four parameters of the trajectory of change in marital quality (initial status as well as linear, quadratic, and cubic patterns of change) were estimated for husbands and wives over the first 10 years of marriage (n?=?522 couples at Year 1 and 93 couples at Year 10). Both husbands and wives started their trajectories of change at fairly high levels of marital quality and showed a cubic pattern of change such that marital quality declined fairly rapidly in the early years of marriage, stabilized, and then declined again. Whereas individual-differences variables predicted the initial status of the trajectory, husbands and wives living with only their biological children showed a steeper decline in marital quality than husbands and wives living without children or stepchildren. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Body image and marital satisfaction: Evidence for the mediating role of sexual frequency and sexual satisfaction.

How does women’s body image shape their interpersonal relationships? Based on recent theories of risk regulation and empirical evidence that sex is an emotionally risky behavior, we predicted that women’s body image would predict increased sexual frequency and thus increased sexual and marital satisfaction for both members of established relationships. The current study of 53 recently married couples provided results consistent with this prediction. Specifically, wives’ perceptions of their sexual attractiveness were positively associated with both wives’ and husbands’ marital satisfaction, controlling for wives’ body mass index (BMI) wives’ global self-esteem, wives’ neuroticism, and reports of whether or not the couple was trying to get pregnant, and both of these associations were mediated by increased sexual frequency and higher sexual satisfaction. Notably, wives’ perceptions of their sexual attractiveness accounted for 6% of the variance in husbands’ marital satisfaction and 19% of the variance in wives’ marital satisfaction that was unique from BMI and the other controls. Accordingly, marital interventions may greatly benefit by addressing women’s body esteem. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuroticism and marital satisfaction: The mediating role played by the sexual relationship.

Why is Neuroticism so harmful to marriage and other intimate relationships? Given that such relationships generally involve a sexual component, the current longitudinal study explored whether the apparent negative impact of own and partner's Neuroticism on marriage could be explained by dissatisfaction with the sexual relationship. Just after their weddings, 72 couples reported their marital satisfaction, sexual satisfaction, and Neuroticism. One year later, they again reported their marital and sexual satisfaction. Own Neuroticism predicted lower levels of concurrent marital and sexual satisfaction among husbands and wives, declines in sexual satisfaction among husbands and wives, and declines in marital satisfaction among wives. Partner's Neuroticism predicted lower levels of concurrent marital satisfaction among husbands and wives, lower levels of concurrent sexual satisfaction among husbands, and declines in sexual satisfaction among husbands. Consistent with predictions, sexual satisfaction mediated every effect of own and partner Neuroticism on marital satisfaction. Results highlight the prominent role played by the sexual relationship in accounting for marital outcomes and thus suggest specific processes through which Neuroticism may affect the marriage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Division of Labor and Working-Class Women's Well-Being Across the Transition to Parenthood.

This study examines the degree to which the division of household and child-care tasks predicts working-class women's well-being across the transition to parenthood. Women completed questionnaires about the division of labor and their well-being before the birth of their first child and upon returning to work. Results showed that violated expectations regarding the division of child care were associated with increased distress postnatally, and there was some evidence that this relationship was moderated by gender ideology. Traditional women whose husbands did more child care than they expected them to do were more distressed. Work status also moderated the relationship between violated expectations and distress. The results suggest that the division of child care is more salient in predicting distress than the division of housework, for working-class women, at this time point. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Generalized and specific loneliness in early marriage.

38 husbands (mean age 26 yrs) and wives (mean age 23.8 yrs), married for an average of 35.8 mo and without children, independently completed a set of established measures of loneliness and of aspects of their marital relationship (e.g., UCLA Loneliness Scale). Significant levels of loneliness were reported by some Ss, and only modest correlations were found between the loneliness scores of husbands and wives. General and specific loneliness were related to marital attitudes, particularly less liking, less intimacy, and greater communication apprehension among husbands, and to less liking, less marital satisfaction, less love, and less self-disclosure among the wives. Scores of the spouses and spouse difference scores on several of these variables were also related to loneliness. Findings are discussed as pertaining to loneliness without social isolation and in relation to the quality of relationships. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changes in life patterns and symptoms of low mood as reported by wives of severely brain-injured soldiers.

Tested hypotheses that (a) wives of brain-injured veterans would perceive greater changes in their family life 1 yr following their husbands' injury than wives of paraplegic veterans and (b) wives of brain-injured veterans would report more symptoms indicative of low mood than wives of paraplegics and controls. 27 Israeli wives (mean age, 26 yrs) whose husbands had fought in the Yom Kippur War 1 yr earlier responded to questions assessing family life, family interpersonal relations, marital roles, and disturbances in mood. Eight Ss had brain-injured husbands; 5 Ss had paraplegic husbands; and 14 Ss had uninjured husbands. Data support both hypotheses. Significant differences between groups appeared in each of the 4 major areas. It is suggested that future research consider "good adjustment" to the postwar return of paraplegic or brain-injured husbands. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethnicity and acculturation: Assessing Mexican American couples' relationships using the Marital Satisfaction Inventory—Revised.

This study compared the marriages of 75 Mexican American and 66 non-Hispanic White American couples sampled from the same geographic region of the southwestern U.S., using the Marital Satisfaction Inventory—Revised (MSI—R) . Analyses of internal consistency and scales' intercorrelations provided partial support for the structural equivalence of MSI-R scales across both samples. Multivariate analyses indicated modestly higher levels of relationship distress among the Mexican American couples, although group differences dissolved after controlling for demographic variables other than ethnicity. Ratings of higher acculturation among Mexican American couples were modestly related to higher levels of marital distress for wives but unrelated to relationship satisfaction for husbands. Implications of findings for the study of Mexican American marriages and interventions with clinically distressed couples are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)