Spouse Ratings Research Articles

Trend and spatial pattern of intimate partner rape notifications against women in Northeast Brazil (2013-2022).

To analyze the trend and spatial pattern of intimate partner rape reports against women in Northeast Brazil. Ecological time-series study and spatial analysis with secondary data from the Notifiable Diseases Information System between 2013 and 2022. Gross rape rates were calculated by type of intimate partner and by age group of the victim. Prais-Winsten regression was used to calculate the trend, and the global and local Moran indices were used for spatial analysis. A total of 5,542 cases of intimate partner rape were reported. Spousal rates ranged from 0.34/100,000 women in 2013 to 0.51/100,000 in 2017, with greater increases between 2018 (1.04/100 thousand) and 2022 (1.28/100 thousand). There was an upward trend in the Northeast as a whole (APC=19.47; 95%CI 15.88-23.22) and in almost all states, except Paraíba and Sergipe. Cases perpetrated by boyfriends (APC=23.90; 95%CI 12.80-36.09) and among women aged 15 to 19 years (APC=22.63; 95%CI 4.18-44.35) showed the highest annual variation. A concentration of high rates was observed in several municipalities in the northwest of Ceará and southeast of Pernambuco. The trend in intimate partner rape rates against women increased in the Northeast, especially among younger women and by boyfriends, with a greater agglomeration of notifications in Ceará and Pernambuco.

How social stressors at work influence marital behaviors at home: An interpersonal model of work-family spillover.

Drawing on conservation of resources and related theories, this study develops and tests an interpersonal model of work-family spillover. Our model specifies how social stressors at work (i.e., workplace incivility, abusive supervision, interpersonal conflict) result in the experience of a social-based form of work-family conflict, ultimately influencing marital behaviors at home, on a daily basis. The mediating role of burnout and the moderating role of trust were also examined. A 2-week experience-sampling study with daily employee surveys at work and at home and with spousal ratings for employees' marital behaviors in the evening provided general support for the proposed relationships. Within individuals, social stressors at work were associated with burnout symptoms, which mediated the effect of workplace social stressors on social-based work-family conflict. In line with congruence response models, we found that those who are more trusting were more negatively affected by social stressors at work. Finally, on evenings when employees experienced social-based work-family conflict, their spouses reported more withdrawn and angry behaviors and less supportive behaviors shown toward them. Overall, the present research explicates a specific form of work-family conflict, one in which social stressors in one domain result in negative behaviors in the other domain via burnout experiences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

How Workplace Social Stressors Influence Marital Behaviors: A Social Model of Work-Family Spillover

Drawing on work-family spillover and self-regulatory depletion theories, this study proposes and tests an interpersonal model of work-family spillover. Our model specifies how social stressors at work (i.e., workplace incivility, abusive supervision, interpersonal conflict) result in experiences of a social-based form of work-family conflict, ultimately influencing marital behaviors at home on a daily basis. The mediating role of depersonalization and the moderating role of dispositional trust were also examined. A two-week experience-sampling study with daily employee surveys at work and at home and with spousal ratings for employees’ marital behaviors in the evening provided general support for the proposed relationships. Within individuals, social stressors at work were associated with depersonalization, which mediated the effect of workplace social stressors on social-based work-family conflict. In line with congruence response models, we observed that those who are trusting (agreeableness facet) were more negatively affected by social stressors at work. On evenings when employees experienced social-based work-family conflict, their spouses reported more withdrawn and angry behaviors and less supportive behaviors shown towards them. Overall, the current research explicates a specific form of work-family conflict, one in which social stressors in one domain result in negative behaviors in the other domain via depersonalization.

The Association Between Cancer and Spousal Rate of Memory Decline: A Negative Control Study to Evaluate (Unmeasured) Social Confounding of the Cancer-memory Relationship.

Cancer diagnoses are associated with better long-term memory in older adults, possibly reflecting a range of social confounders that increase cancer risk but improve memory. We used spouse's memory as a negative control outcome to evaluate this possible confounding, since spouses share social characteristics and environments, and individuals' cancers are unlikely to cause better memory among their spouses. We estimated the association of an individual's incident cancer diagnosis (exposure) with their own (primary outcome) and their spouse's (negative control outcome) memory decline in 3601 couples from 1998 to 2014 in the Health and Retirement Study, using linear mixed-effects models. Incident cancer predicted better long-term memory for the diagnosed individual. We observed no association between an individual's cancer diagnosis and rate of spousal memory decline. This negative control study suggests that the inverse association between incident cancer and rate of memory decline is unlikely to be attributable to social/behavioral factors shared between spouses.

Is it me or you? Marital conflict behavior and blood pressure reactivity.

Cardiovascular reactivity (CVR), such as increases in blood pressure, during stressful marital interactions have been identified as a possible mechanism linking marital discord with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Both expressions of and exposure to negative behavior during marital conflict may influence CVR, but analytic approaches to date have not permitted firm conclusions as to whether CVR during conflict reflects an individual's own actions, actions of the spouse, or both. Additionally, evidence suggests health-relevant marital interaction varies along the affiliation dimension (i.e., warmth vs. hostility) and control dimension (i.e., dominance vs. submissiveness) of social behavior, but there is much less research on the latter. To address these issues, the present study used the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) to examine associations of behavioral measures of affiliation and control with concurrent changes in blood pressure (i.e., CVR) during a marital conflict discussion in 146 middle-aged couples. Factor analyses of observer-coded behaviors during conflict discussions revealed a single factor for husbands and for wives, characterized by high hostility and dominance, and low warmth. The validity of these behavioral factors was supported by their predicted associations with spouse ratings of behavior during the conflict discussions, concurrent increases in anger, and reports of overall marital quality. Although expression of and exposure to negative conflict behaviors were correlated, only expression independently predicted increases in blood pressure. Exposure to negative partner behavior might alter other elements of physiological burden contributing to CVD risk, but the individual's own behavioral expressions are more closely associated with concurrent blood pressure reactivity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The Executive Subsystem in Middle Childhood: Adult Mental Health, Marital Satisfaction, and Secure‐Base Parenting

ObjectiveTo explore interrelations among individual and dyadic levels of the family's executive subsystem among parents with children in middle childhood.BackgroundA robust literature documents links between parental mental health and marital satisfaction, and associations of both with parent–child relationships. Substantially less is known about how executive subsystem processes of mothers and fathers mutually influence one another in middle childhood.MethodThis community sample comprised married, two‐parent families with at least one child aged 8 to 11 years. All parents completed measures of psychological symptoms, marital satisfaction, and parenting behaviors that provide a secure attachment base for older children. Dyadic data analysis tested spillover, compensatory, and crossover effects.ResultsResults indicated that both individual and spousal self‐ratings of mental health and marital satisfaction were related to parents' reported secure‐base provision, directly or in interaction with the spouse's ratings (or both). Within and cross‐person moderation by marital satisfaction emerged in associations between mental health and secure‐base provision.ConclusionFindings support the spillover, compensatory, and crossover hypotheses and add to the literature on the executive subsystem and secure‐base parenting during middle childhood.ImplicationsResults lend support to systemic conceptualizations of interdependence in families to guide future research and can inform therapeutic intervention targeting the executive subsystem processes.

How Universal Is the General Factor of Personality? An Analysis of the Big Five in Forager Farmers of the Bolivian Amazon.

In various personality models, such as the Big Five, a consistent higher order general factor of personality (GFP) can be identified. One view in the literature is that the GFP reflects general social effectiveness. Most GFP studies, however, have been conducted in Western, educated, industrialized, and rich democracies (WEIRD). Therefore, to address the question of the universality of the GFP, we test whether the GFP can also be identified in a preliterate indigenous sample of Tsimane by using self-reports, spouse reports, and interviewer ratings. In the Tsimane, a viable GFP could be identified and the intercorrelations between personality traits were significantly stronger than in samples from industrial countries. The GFP correlated with the ratings of social engagement. In addition, self and spouse ratings of the GFP overlapped. Overall, the findings are in line with the notion that the GFP is a human universal and a substantive personality factor reflecting social effectiveness.

Can Deficits in Emotional Intelligence Explain the Negative Relationship Between Abandonment Schema and Marital Quality?

ObjectiveTo determine whether the harmful effects of abandonment schema on marital quality can be attributed to low trait emotional intelligence in a sample of Iranian couples.BackgroundResearch has demonstrated that maladaptive schemas are related to various indicators of marital quality; however, little is known about the mechanisms underlying these relationships. In this study, we use maladaptive schema theory to propose that the harmful effects of abandonment schema on marital quality can be attributed to low trait emotional intelligence.MethodData were collected from a sample of 123 married couples from Iran. Participants completed a series of questionnaires designed to measure maladaptive schemas, trait emotional intelligence, and marital quality. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the hypothesized indirect effect.ResultsResults indicate that abandonment schema is negatively associated with several indicators of marital quality via the mediating effects of trait emotional intelligence.ConclusionWe conclude that trait emotional intelligence can account for the negative relationships between abandonment schema and spousal ratings of marital satisfaction, communication satisfaction, and conflict resolution satisfaction in a sample of Iranian couples.ImplicationsCouple therapists should consider emotion‐focused techniques when treating couples where one or both partners present with abandonment schema.

Social Desirability in Spouse Ratings.

Whether or not socially desirable responding is a cause for concern in personality assessment has long been debated. For many researchers, McCrae and Costa laid the issue to rest when they showed that correcting for socially desirable responding in self-reports did not improve the agreement with spouse ratings on the Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness to Experience Personality Inventory. However, their findings rest on the assumption that observer ratings in general, and spouse ratings in particular, are an unbiased external criterion. If spouse ratings are also susceptible to socially desirable responding, correcting for the bias in self-rated measures cannot be assumed to increase agreement between self-reports and spouse ratings, and thus failure to do so should not be taken as evidence for the ineffectiveness of measuring and correcting for socially desirable responding. In the present study, McCrae and Costa's influential study was replicated with the exception of measuring socially desirable responding with the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, in both self-reports and spouse ratings. Analyses were based on responses from 70 couples who had lived together for at least one year. The results showed that both self-reports and spouse ratings are susceptible to socially desirable responding and thus McCrae and Costa's conclusion is drawn into question.

Assessment of social traits in married couples: Self-reports versus spouse ratings around the interpersonal circumplex.

Personality traits predict the quality of intimate relationships, and as a result can be useful additions to assessments of couple functioning. For traits involving social behavior, the affiliation (i.e., warmth, friendliness vs. hostility, quarrelsomeness) and control (i.e., dominance vs. deference, submissiveness) dimensions of the interpersonal circumplex (IPC) are an alternative to the 5-factor model traits of agreeableness and extraversion, given that they may provide a more specific and relevant description of social behavior in the context of couple functioning. The couple context creates an opportunity to supplement commonly used self-reports with informant ratings. Although substantial correlations between self-reports and partner ratings of personality are well-documented, differences between these assessment modalities in levels of affiliation and control have not been examined previously. The present study of 301 middle-aged and older couples addressed this issue by comparing self-reports and spouse ratings, using parallel forms of a measure of the interpersonal circumplex derived from the NEO (Neuroticism-Extraversion-Openness) PI-R (Personality Inventory-Revised). Participants reported lower trait dominance relative to spouses' ratings, and less trait hostility. For dominance, this discrepancy was evident at all levels of marital quality, but for hostility it was particularly apparent among couples reporting low marital quality. The tendency to self-report less dominance relative to ratings by spouses was stronger among women than men. These discrepancies may be important in couple assessment and intervention. (PsycINFO Database Record

Emotional labor and family quality: the role of work-family positive spillover

There is increasing research interest in both types of emotional labor at work (i.e. surface acting and deep acting), but the effects of emotional labor at work on employees’ emotional labor at home and their family members’ family quality have not yet been explored. Drawing on work-family enrichment theory, this study investigated the mechanism underlying the relationship between employees’ emotional labor at work and their spouses’ perceived family quality by focusing on the mediating role of employees’ emotional labor at home and the moderating role of work-to-family positive spillover (WFPS). The results from a time-lagged three-wave survey of 193 Chinese employee-spouse dyads indicated that surface acting at home mediated the relationship between surface acting at work and spousal ratings of family quality. Although deep acting at work was positively related to deep acting at home, deep acting at home was not significantly related to family quality. WFPS strengthened the relationship between surface acting at work and surface acting at home. This study extends emotional labor theories to the family domain and provides insights into the mediating mechanisms and boundary condition through which emotional labor at work relates to spouses’ perceptions of family quality. The implications for theory and management practice are discussed.

Do We Need Multiple Informants When Assessing Autistic Traits? The Degree of Report Bias on Offspring, Self, and Spouse Ratings.

This study focused on the degree of report bias in assessing autistic traits. Both parents of 124 preschoolers completed the Social Communication Questionnaire and the Autism-spectrum Quotient. Acceptable agreement existed between mother and father reports of children’s mean scores of autistic traits, but interrater reliability for rank-order correlations was only fair. No evidence was found for report bias regarding parent-offspring autistic traits. However, adult autistic ratings were strongly biased: spouse-ratings were higher than self-ratings, correlations were only fair when both parents reported about the same person, and resemblance was higher for reports from the same person than for spouses’ separate self-reports. It is advisable to involve multiple informants when assessing autistic traits, and to use procedural and/or statistical remedies to control for report bias.

“I Wouldn’t Be No Woman If I Wouldn’t Hit Him”: Race, Patriarchy, and Spousal Homicide in New Orleans, 1921–1945

Early-twentieth-century New Orleans was extraordinarily violent, and the city’s domestic homicide rate was particularly high. Remarkably rich sources for the period from 1921 to 1945 reveal distinct race- and gender-based levels and etiologies of spousal murder. Although challenges to patriarchal authority and men’s proprietary control triggered most of the violence, the African American partner homicide rate was seven times the white rate, and the African American women’s spousal homicide rate five times that of white men and a dozen times that of white women. These disparities reflected the interaction among race relations, gender ideals, and a series of neighborhood and institutional forces, which combined to reinforce masculine privilege in white families and destabilize household authority in African American families, resulting in divergent patterns of spousal murder.

Gender differences in the family-relatedness of relocation decisions

Using a dyadic study design, the present study draws on research into the family-relatedness of work decisions to examine the impact of the spouse's characteristics on an employee's willingness to engage in job-related relocation. With a sample of 1234 employees, the results show that spousal willingness to relocate mediates (a) the negative effect of the spouse's community ties and (b) the positive effect of the spouse's job alternatives on an employee's willingness to relocate. The indirect effect of the spouse's job alternatives was stronger among female than among male employees. To validate employees' perceptions, this study uses matched data from a subsample of 207 employees and their spouses to test a multi-source model, which revealed several notable inconsistencies. Our exploration of discrepancies between employee and spousal ratings helps explain these differences between single-source and multi-source models. Overall, findings suggest that employees consider various spousal factors in their career decision-making, and the family-relatedness of relocation decisions is particularly strong among female employees.

Anger arousal and behavioral anger regulation in everyday life among patients with chronic low back pain: Relationships to patient pain and function.

The objective of this study was to determine the degree to which patient anger arousal and behavioral anger regulation (expression, inhibition) occurring in the course of daily life was related to patient pain and function as rated by patients and their spouses. Married couples (N = 105) (one spouse with chronic low back pain) completed electronic daily diaries, with assessments 5 times/day for 14 days. Patients completed items on their own state anger, behavioral anger expression and inhibition, and pain-related factors. Spouses completed items on their observations of patient pain-related factors. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to test concurrent and lagged relationships. Patient-reported increases in state anger were related to their reports of concurrent increases in pain and pain interference and to spouse reports of patient pain and pain behavior. Patient-reported increases in behavioral anger expression were related to lagged increases in pain intensity and interference and decreases in function. Most of these relationships remained significant with state anger controlled. Patient-reported increases in behavioral anger inhibition were related to concurrent increases in pain interference and decreases in function, which also remained significant with state anger controlled. Patient-reported increases in state anger were related to lagged increases in spouse reports of patient pain intensity and pain behaviors. Results indicate that in patients with chronic pain, anger arousal and behavioral anger expression and inhibition in everyday life are related to elevated pain intensity and decreased function as reported by patients. Spouse ratings show some degree of concordance with patient reports.

Comparing caregiver and clinician predictions of fitness to drive in people with Alzheimer's disease.

This observational study investigated family caregiver and clinician ratings of 75 drivers with Alzheimer's disease against scores on a standardized road test and a naturalistic driving evaluation. Clinician ratings by a physician specialized in dementia were significantly associated with road test error scores (r=.25, p=.03) but not naturalistic driving errors or global ratings of road test and naturalistic driving performance. Caregiver ratings were unrelated to either driving assessment, with two exceptions; adult child ratings of driving ability were correlated with road test error scores (r=.43, p=.02), and spousal ratings were inversely correlated with global ratings. Clinician ratings of driving competence were modestly correlated with road test performance, but caregiver ratings were more complex. Adult children may be more accurate reporters of driving ability than spouses, possibly because of less personal bias, but the reasons behind this discrepancy need further investigation.

The Canadian Long-Gun Registry: A Preliminary Evaluation

In 2012, eleven years after its introduction, Canada scrapped its controversial long-gun registry that had required the registration of long guns (shotguns and rifles). This paper briefly reviews the politics behind the demise of the registry and explores the linkage between the long-gun registry and murder rates. No solid evidence was found linking Canadian gun laws to the slow continual decline in Canadian homicide rates. An analysis of a Special Request to Statistics Canada found that less than 3% of long guns involved in homicide were registered to the accused. Neither the beginning nor the end of the long-gun registry had a measurable effect on the spousal homicide rate. Registered firearms were involved in only 4.7% of firearm homicides and 1% of all homicides. The registry misleads police because it cannot alert them to the existence of unregistered guns. Only half of Canada’s gunstock has been registered. Available data suggest that Canadian homicide rates are likely to continue declining after the demise of the long-gun registry.

Self-reports and spouse ratings of neuroticism: perspectives on emotional adjustment in couples.

Evidence of reciprocal associations between individual emotional adjustment and the quality of intimate relationships has led to the growing use of interventions that combine a focus on couple issues with a focus on individual emotional functioning. In these approaches, spouse ratings of emotional functioning can provide an important second method of assessment, beyond the much more commonly used self-reports. Although an extensive literature demonstrates substantial convergent correlations between self-reported and spouse-rated emotional adjustment, levels of adjustment evident across these 2 assessment methods are much less commonly compared, especially among couples reporting higher levels of marital distress. Well-documented limitations of both self-reports and spouse ratings suggest that differences--which would not necessarily be evident in correlations between methods--might be common and substantial, perhaps raising complications in couple assessments and intervention. The present study compared self-reports and spouse ratings of neuroticism and its specific components using the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised in a sample of 301 middle-aged and older couples. For overall neuroticism and the specific facets of anxiety, angry hostility, and vulnerability, self-reported levels of negative emotionality were consistently lower than the parallel ratings by spouses, most notably among couples reporting low levels of marital adjustment. Hence, substantial underestimates of negative emotionality obtained through self-reports as compared to ratings by spouses (or overestimates as obtained through spouse ratings) may be common and could complicate couple assessment and intervention.

Assortative mating: Personality and values

The purpose of the study is to analyze different aspects of assortative mating. One of the goals is to compare spouse similarity for personality (broad and narrow traits) and values. The second aim is to compare self-ratings and spouse ratings (“perceived assortment”). Lastly, the study compares perception of spouse and perception of the same-sex parent (for example, how wife perceives her husband and her father). The sample includes nearly 1000 married couples whose marriage duration varies from a few months to 50 years. The results support: (1) higher spouse similarity for values than for personality; (2) higher similarity for self-rating than for cross-rating and (3) difference between husbands’ and wives’ “spouse-parent” perception (husbands’ evaluations of their wives and mothers more similar as compared to wives’ evaluations of their husbands and fathers). The study is supported by RFBR (project 12-06-00342).

Patterns and predictors of symptom incongruence in older couples coping with prostate cancer

Prostate cancer survivors (PCSs) may experience persistent symptoms following treatment. If PCSs and spouses differ in their perceptions of symptoms, that incongruence may cause mismanagement of symptoms and reduced relationship quality. The purpose of this study was to examine symptom incongruence and identify the PCS and spouse characteristics associated with symptom incongruence in older couples coping with prostate cancer. Participants in the study were older PCSs (>60 years) and their spouses (N=59 couples). Symptom incongruence was determined by comparing patient and spouse independent ratings of the severity of his cancer-related symptoms. Predictor variables included PCS age, time since diagnosis, PCS comorbidity, PCS and spouse depressive symptoms, and spouse caregiving strain. PCS and spouse ratings of his symptom severity and the amount of incongruence over his symptoms varied significantly across couples. Overall, couples rated a moderate level of PCS symptom severity, but PCSs and their spouses significantly differed in their perceptions of PCS symptom severity with spouses rating severity higher (t=-2.66, df=51, p<0.01). PCS younger age and high spouse caregiver strain accounted for 29 % of incongruence in perceptions of PCS symptom severity. This study is among the first to show that PCSs and spouses may perceive cancer-related persistent symptoms differently. Among this older sample, younger PCS age and spouse caregiver strain were associated with incongruence in symptoms perceptions in couples. These and other factors may inform future interventions aimed at preserving relationship quality in older couples who have experienced prostate cancer.