Perceptions Of Marital Quality Research Articles

Marital Quality and Heavy Alcohol Use Among Older Couples

Supportive marital relationships may reduce partners’ problematic health behaviors, whereas unhappy relationships may lack efficacious spousal monitoring of health and increase the likelihood of using maladaptive coping strategies, such as heavy alcohol use, to deal with relationship problems. We used pooled data from the 2014 and 2016 waves of the Health and Retirement Study to examine how both partners’ perceptions of marital quality were associated with heavy drinking. Our analytic sample included married couples in which both spouses were over age 50, completed the leave-behind psychosocial questionnaire, and provided non-missing data on marital quality and alcohol use (n=2,095 couples). Measures included both positive and negative dimensions of marital quality and controls for sociodemographic, economic, health, household and marital characteristics. Using Proc Glimmix, we estimated a dual-intercept Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM), in which separate equations were computed simultaneously for husbands and wives. For husbands, higher negative marital quality was associated with an increase in the odds of their own heavy drinking (OR=1.27), but there was no significant association between wives’ marital quality and husbands’ heavy drinking behavior. For wives, marital quality was not significantly associated with their own heavy drinking, but husbands’ higher ratings of both negative and positive marital quality increased the risk of wives’ heavy drinking (OR=1.60 and OR=1.75, respectively). Results suggest that marital quality is associated with heavy drinking in later life: self-ratings of marital quality matter for men, whereas spousal perceptions of marital quality are more important for women.

Negative Marital Quality, Purpose in Life, and Depressive Symptoms Among Middle-Aged and Older Couples

Negative marital quality is associated with poor health outcomes. Purpose in life can serve as a psychological resource to buffer the stressors experienced from a negative marital relationship. Yet, the associations among negative martial quality, a person’s level of purpose in life, and depressive symptoms have not been fully explored in a dyadic context. We examined the actor (intra-individual) and partner (cross-spousal) effects of negative marital quality on depressive symptoms in couples and the potential mediating role of purpose in life. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze cross-sectional data on middle-aged and older married, heterosexual couples (N=1,235) who participated in the 2016 wave of the Health and Retirement Study. The final model had an acceptable fit to the data (TLI=.963, RMSEA=.040, SRMR=.038). At the actor level, negative relationship quality was positively associated with depressive symptom severity, and purpose in life mediated the relationship in wives and husbands. At the partner level, wives had more depressive symptoms when husbands reported higher negative marital quality. Comparatively, husbands had less depressive symptoms when their wives indicated a greater sense of purpose. Husbands also had a lower purpose in life when their wives had higher states of negative marital quality. This study highlights the psychological benefits of allaying negative perceptions of marital quality and enhancing the sense of purpose in middle-aged and older couples. The results support a focus on dyadic approaches to improve the psychological health, and potentially, the physical health status of middle-aged and older couples.

Relations Between Parents’ Anxiety Symptoms, Marital Quality, and Preschoolers’ Externalizing and Internalizing Behaviors

Our objective was to expand understanding of the associations between fathers’ and mothers’ anxiety symptoms, their perceptions of marital quality, and their children’s maladjustment behaviors. Sixty Israeli families with a child aged 3–5 participated. Mothers and fathers completed self-report questionnaires assessing parents’ anxiety symptoms, marital dissatisfaction, and marital overt conflict, and child internalizing and externalizing behaviors. The actor–partner interdependence mediation model (APIMeM) design with distinguishable dyads within a path analysis framework was used. Findings showed that marital dissatisfaction of both mothers and fathers partially mediated the links between mothers’ anxiety and child behaviors. For externalizing behaviors, actor and partner effects were found, so that mothers’ anxiety symptoms predicted mothers’ own marital dissatisfaction (actor effect) and fathers’ marital dissatisfaction (partner effect), which, in turn were linked with children’s externalizing behaviors. As for internalizing behaviors, only actor effect was found, so that mothers’ anxiety symptoms were linked with maternal dissatisfaction, which, in turn, was linked with child internalizing behaviors. For fathers’ anxiety symptoms, the APIMeM indicated only direct effects on both internalizing and externalizing behaviors. These findings highlight the risk associated with parental anxiety and the contribution of the marital relations to children’s adjustment and are discussed in light of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model and Emotional Security Theory.

We Are Family: Fathers' Time with Children and the Risk of Parental Relationship Dissolution

Resident fathers have increased the time they spend in active childrearing in recent decades. This paper examines how fathers’ time in childrearing is associated with relationship dissolution. We use longitudinal survey and time-diary data on young children from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC; n = 5,604). We investigate mothers’ and fathers’ parenting time, alone and with each other, in a wide variety of activities. Controlling for a rich set of demographic characteristics and the quality of the parental relationship, we find that the sole correlate of parental relationship dissolution is shared time spent in family meals. This correlation holds only for shared family mealtime in which families are not simultaneously watching television. Further analysis suggests that high-quality shared family mealtimes may lower the risk of relationship dissolution by enhancing mothers’ perceptions of marital quality and relationship happiness and reducing maternal depressive symptoms.

The Marital Experiences of Couples Who Include a Child With Autism

We used a phenomenological qualitative approach to collect and analyze data from 10 married couples, who had a child with autism to investigate their perceptions of marital quality and to explore the factors that contribute to marital longevity. We investigated how participants described and interpreted their experience by using pattern coding to analyze the data. Several themes emerged from the data and indicated, in general, that having a child with autism has broad effects on relationship experiences, including some partners feeling more bonded over the care of their child. We discuss implications for clinicians, limitations, and potential future directions for additional research.

The Importance of Feeling Understood in Marital Conversations about End-of-Life Health Care.

This study investigates processes within marital discussions about end-of-life medical treatment preferences. The associations among marital quality, the perception of having been understood following discussion, and intentions for whom to appoint as a health care surrogate are addressed. Data from 2,969 white married couples in their mid-60s are analyzed. Four-fifths of primary respondents reported that their partners understood their preferences extremely well. Primary respondents' perceptions of high marital quality were associated with feeling extremely well understood. In turn, feeling understood partially mediated the relationship between perceptions of marital quality and the intention to appoint the partner as durable power of attorney for health care (DPAHC). Implications for research on marital communication and quality end-of-life health care are discussed.

Forecasting friendship: How marital quality, maternal mood, and attachment security are linked to children's peer relationships

Mothers' perceptions of marital quality and depressed mood and children's attachment security and friendship quality were assessed in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. One month after their birth and again when the children were 3 and 4 years old and in first and third grades, mothers rated the quality of their marital relationship; when the children were 2 years old, the Attachment Q-Set was used to assess the mother–child attachment relationship; the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale was used to measure the mother's depressed mood when the child was 2 years old and in third grade; and when children were in fourth grade, they were observed interacting with their best friend to assess friendship quality. Using a series of regression and path analyses, we determined whether and how marital quality, maternal mood, and attachment security predicted friendship quality. Better quality friendship interactions in fourth grade were significantly associated with better marital quality and greater attachment security. The association between marital quality and friendship quality was partially mediated by attachment security. Friendship quality was not related to maternal mood.

Perceived Equality in Spousal Relations, Marital Quality, and Life Satisfaction: A Comparison of Elderly Wives and Husbands

The author examined whether equality in 3 dimensions of marriage—power relations, division of household tasks, and equality in resources—affects marital quality as well as general life satisfaction in a sample of 120 elderly Israeli couples. Another goal of the research was to examine whether perceived past assistance from the spouse at a time of need affected the dependent variables and whether this effect was different for husbands and wives. The findings revealed similarities as well as differences in the variables that predict marital quality and general life satisfaction. The relationship among the predictors and the dependent variables was stronger for the wives than for their husbands. Past assistance from the spouse influenced quality of marriage and life satisfaction for both men and women. Moreover, the results revealed a cross-effect, indicating that one partner's reports of past assistance and equality in marriage affected the other's perceptions of marital quality and general life satisfaction.

Marital Quality and Spouses' Marriage Work With Close Friends and Each Other

Through in‐home interviews with 142 married couples, we explored how husbands' and wives' marriage work with close friends and one another was linked to their perceptions of marital quality. Results showed that husbands engaged in more marriage work with their wives than with close friends, whereas wives engaged in similar levels of marriage work with their close friends and husbands. For wives, marriage work with their spouses was found to moderate the relationship between marital quality and marriage work with friends. At low levels of marriage work with their spouses, wives' marriage work with friends was negatively related to their reports of marital love and positively related to reports of ineffective arguing. In contrast, at high levels of marriage work with their husbands, no significant relationship was found between wives' marriage work with friends and marital quality for wives. Findings underscore the role of spouses' friendships and suggest that the strength of spouses' ties to one another is linked to the social context they and their close friends create.

All marriages are not maintained equally: Marital type, marital quality, and the use of maintenance behaviors

AbstractAlthough a growing amount of research has shown that married couples enact behaviors that maintain or preserve the relationship, little attention has examined how maintenance strategies are used in different types of marriages. This study investigated differences in the use of maintenance behaviors and in perceptions of marital quality across various marital types and explored the relationship between maintenance behaviors, marital types and key indicators of marital quality. Data collected from 141 married couples indicated that couples differed in the use of maintenance behaviors among various marital types. Further, the relationship between maintenance behaviors and perceptions of the key indicators of marital quality varied depending upon couples’ideological frameworks. The findings allow for a better picture of the use of maintenance behaviors in different types of marriages.

The influence of marital duration on the use of relationship maintenance behaviors

This paper presents a study of the use of relationship maintenance behaviors—behaviors that function to preserve ongoing relationships—in marriages of varying durations. Data collected from 143 married couples revealed that the use of maintenance behaviors generally followed a curvilinear pattern in which maintenance behaviors were used most frequently in the early years of marriage, dropped during the middle years, and rebounded in more long‐term marriages. Results also indicated that the length of the marital relationship did not moderate the strength of relationship between the use of maintenance behaviors and perceptions of marital quality. Thus, it appears that even though the use of maintenance behaviors varies over the course of marriage, their utilization remains important in fostering continued positive perceptions of the marriage.

Couples 'Employment/Retirement Patterns and Perceptions of Marital Quality

This study explores the impact of couples' employment/retirement patterns on indicators of marital quality (conflicts, heated arguments, marital happiness). Logistic regressions based on data from the National Survey of Families and Households (N= 672) reveal that the husband retired/wife employed pattern is associated with perceptions of lower marital quality among traditional gender-role couples. On the other hand, traditional gender-role employed husbands with retired wives report somewhat higher marital quality than husbands in dual-earner couples. In addition, dual-retired spouses with recently retired wives score lower on marital happiness than spouses in current dual-earner couples.

Reconceptualizing Family Work: The Effect of Emotion Work on Perceptions of Marital Quality

Cette analyse s'inscrit dans le cadre de l'etude de l'impact du travail familial des maris et des epouses sur leur bien-etre personnel et conjugal. Afin de mieux comprendre la relation entre division du travail familial et qualite des relations conjugales, cet article propose d'etendre la notion de travail familial, dans lequel l'A. inclut le travail emotionnel a cote du travail constitue par les tâches menageres et le soin apporte aux enfants

Employment, Family, and Perceptions of Marital Quality Among Husbands and Wives

Previous studies of work/family linkages have emphasized the effects of one domain or the other on the individual, yet few have sought to analyze the interconnective nature of paid labor and family environments. Using data from the 1988 National Survey of Families and Households, this study examines the effects of husbands' and wives' employment and marriage characteristics on their respective perceptions of marital quality. Contrary to previous findings, occupational factors have only a minimal effect on both husbands' and wives' perceptions of marital quality. Husbands and wives are both affected by wives' opinions of fairness in the marriage. The results also suggest that husbands may maintain traditional role expectations for themselves and their wives, despite the dual-earner status of their marriage. The implications of these findings for gender roles in dual-earner marriages are discussed.

Socioeconomic Rewards and Perceived Marital Quality: A Re-Examination

A review of research literature bearing on the empirical generalization that socioeconomic rewards in marriage, such as income, education, and occupational prestige, are positively and linearly associated with faivorable marital outcomes, yielded inconsistent results. Earlier studies from the 1950s and 1960s have generally supported this proposition, whereas more recent analyses qf higher methodological quality have not. Drawing upon a sample of 240 spouses (120 couples) who span all but the most poverty-stricken levels of the social stratification hierarchy, the present analysis attempted to test an alternative model by linking five measures of socioeconomic reward contributions of both husband and wife to 12 indicators of perceived marital quality, including perceived role competence of spouse, marital satisifaction, and dyadic commitment. The findings are generally unsupportive of the idea that higher levels qf socioeconomic rewards lead to marriages that are perceived as more satisfying and stable. However, in support of the alternative model, socioeconomic rewards were found to be moderately related to two of the 12 dependent variable measures for wives: (1) perceptions of their husbands as competent providers and (2) reports of satisfaction with spouse's income. Husbands' perceptions of marital quality were unaffected by varying socioeconomic reward levels.