The quality of parental relationships and dispositional empathy as predictors of satisfaction during the transition to marriage

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe transition to marriage is a normative task in the family life cycle and must be analyzed at the individual and couple levels. This longitudinal study explores the impact of partners’ empathy and their evaluation of their parents’ marriage on couples’ satisfaction with a relationship before and after the wedding. During the first stage of this study, 162 engaged couples who were planning to marry in the near future participated. During the second stage of the study, the couples were assessed after 6–7 months of marriage. The results of the study indicate that the empathy of both partners predicted relationship satisfaction for engaged couples and husbands. The female partners’ assessment of their parents’ marriage was a predictor of their relationship satisfaction before the transition to marriage. At the couple level, partners’ romantic satisfaction before the wedding mediated the association between their empathy and relationship satisfaction after the transition to marriage.