Relationship advice
Do Cold Feet Warn of Trouble Ahead? Premarital Uncertainty and Four-Year Marital Outcomes
Justin Lavner, Benjamin Karney & Thomas Bradbury
Journal of Family Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Are the doubts that people feel before marriage signs of impending difficulties or normative experiences that can be safely ignored? To test these opposing views, we asked 464 recently married spouses whether they had ever been uncertain about getting married and then compared 4-year divorce rates and marital satisfaction trajectories among those partners with and without premarital doubts. Doubts were reported by at least one partner in two thirds of couples. Women with premarital doubts had significantly higher 4-year divorce rates, even when controlling for concurrent marital satisfaction, the difficulty of their engagement, history of parental divorce, premarital cohabitation, and neuroticism. Among intact couples, men's and women's doubts predicted less satisfied marital trajectories. Premarital doubts appear to be common but not benign, suggesting that valid precursors of marital distress are evident during couples' engagements.
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Examining the Relationship Between Financial Issues and Divorce
Jeffrey Dew, Sonya Britt & Sandra Huston
Family Relations, October 2012, Pages 615-628
Abstract:
Using longitudinal data from the National Survey of Families and Households and both wife- and husband-reported data (N = 4,574 couples), this study examined how financial well-being, financial disagreements, and perceptions of financial inequity were associated with the likelihood of divorce. When financial disagreements were in the model, financial well-being was not associated with divorce. Both wives' and husbands' financial disagreements were the strongest disagreement types to predict divorce. Mediators derived from systems theory (conflict tactics) and social exchange theory (marital satisfaction) fully mediated the association between financial disagreement and the hazard of divorce. Finally, financial disagreements fully mediated the association between perceptions of financial inequity and divorce. These findings suggest that financial disagreements are stronger predictors of divorce relative to other common marital disagreements. They further suggest that financial disagreements (e.g., "content") are associated with marital process.
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Reinterpreting the economics of extramarital affairs
Ian Smith
Review of Economics of the Household, September 2012, Pages 319-343
Abstract:
The empirical results for the economic variables presented by Fair (J Political Econ 86(1):45-61, 1978) in his seminal study of extramarital affairs are puzzling within his household allocation of time framework. In particular, the theory is unable to accommodate readily the opposite signs for occupation (positive) and education (negative), assuming the wage rate is directly correlated with both variables. This paper provides a new interpretation of Fair's estimates that accounts for the unexpected education result in terms of the association between schooling and the discount factor applied to expected future sanctions for sexual cheating. Three data sets from the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom are investigated to check the robustness of the partial correlations between infidelity and economic incentives. Taken together, the results across different countries and infidelity measures are substantially in agreement, especially for men. In a novel contribution, this study distinguishes between one off encounters, and irregular and regular forms of infidelity and finds that these are differentially related to occupation and education, consistent with theoretical predictions.
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Relationship Outcomes in Indian-American Love-Based and Arranged Marriages
Pamela Regan, Saloni Lakhanpal & Carlos Anguiano
Psychological Reports, June 2012, Pages 915-924
Abstract:
The meaning and purpose of marriage, and the manner in which spouses are selected, varies across cultures. Although many cultures have a tradition of arranged marriage, researchers interested in marital dynamics generally have focused on love-based marriages. Consequently, there is little information on relational outcomes within arranged marriages. This study compared relationship outcomes in love-based and arranged marriages contracted in the U.S. A community sample of 58 Indian participants living in the U.S. (28 arranged marriages, 30 love-based marriages) completed measures of marital satisfaction, commitment, companionate love, and passionate love. Men reported greater amounts of commitment, passionate love, and companionate love than women. Unexpectedly, no differences were found between participants in arranged and love-based marriages; high ratings of love, satisfaction, and commitment were observed in both marriage types. The overall affective experiences of partners in arranged and love marriages appear to be similar, at least among Indian adults living in contemporary U.S. society.
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A reproductive threat-based model of evolved sex differences in jealousy
Brad Sagarin et al.
Evolutionary Psychology, August 2012, Pages 487-503
Abstract:
Although heterosexual women and men consistently demonstrate sex differences in jealousy, these differences disappear among lesbians and gay men as well as among heterosexual women and men contemplating same-sex infidelities (infidelities in which the partner and rival are the same sex). Synthesizing these past findings, the present paper offers a reproductive threat-based model of evolved sex differences in jealousy that predicts that the sexes will differ only when the jealous perceivers' reproductive outcomes are differentially at risk. This model is supported by data from a web-based study in which lesbians, gay men, bisexual women and men, and heterosexual women and men responded to a hypothetical infidelity scenario with the sex of the rival randomly determined. After reading the scenario, participants indicated which type of infidelity (sexual versus emotional) would cause greater distress. Consistent with predictions, heterosexual women and men showed a sex difference when contemplating opposite-sex infidelities but not when contemplating same-sex infidelities, whereas lesbians and gay men showed no sex difference regardless of whether the infidelity was opposite-sex or same-sex.
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Non-Monogamy and Sexual Relationship Quality Among Same-Sex Male Couples
Jeffrey Parsons et al.
Journal of Family Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Relationship arrangements about sex with outside partners are common among gay couples, and meaningful distinctions in psychological and behavioral health correlates have been found among nonmonogamous agreement types. The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between sexual agreements and partners' sexual relationship quality. Data were collected from both members of 161 gay male couples (n = 322 individuals). Couples were categorized as monogamous (52.8%), open (13.0%), monogamish (14.9%), and discrepant (19.3%). We used the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM) to assess associations of relationship arrangement with four aspects of sexual relationship quality: sexual satisfaction, sexual communication, sexual jealousy, and the occurrence of at-least weekly sex between main partners. We found that sexual arrangements were not associated with sexual satisfaction, communication, or frequency. However, monogamous men reported significantly higher levels of sexual jealousy. Our findings indicate that gay men engage in a range of relationship agreements, and nonmonogamous agreements are associated with levels of sexual relationship quality equivalent to monogamous agreements.
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Changing Same-Sex Marriage Attitudes in America from 1988 Through 2010
Dawn Michelle Baunach
Public Opinion Quarterly, Summer 2012, Pages 364-378
Abstract:
This research note examines changes in attitudes toward same-sex marriage over time. Using OLS regression and decomposition techniques to analyze General Social Survey data, I explain individuals' attitudes toward same-sex marriage from 1988 to 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010. The influences on same-sex marriage attitudes differed substantially over time. Many of the characteristics commonly thought to increase opposition to same-sex marriage (including being African American, living in the southern United States, being an evangelical Protestant, and being Republican) are associated with attitudes only in the later years. In 1988, opposition was generally much higher for everyone; most respondents expressed at least some to strong disapproval of same-sex marriage in 1988, which was then reduced for the highly educated, urban residents, and those with less conservative or no religious affiliations. That is, support for same-sex marriage was fairly localized to specific subgroups in 1988. But, by 2010, support for same-sex marriage was much more broad-based, and opposition to same-sex marriage became more localized to specific subgroups - older Americans, southerners, African Americans, evangelical Protestants, and Republicans. The decomposition analysis finds that changing same-sex marriage attitudes are not due to demographic changes in the American population. Rather, the liberalization in same-sex marriage attitudes from 1988 to 2010 is due primarily to a general societal change in attitudes, as is evidenced by the large change in the constant. Taken together, the results suggest that changing attitudes toward same-sex marriage reflect a cultural shift.
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Jonathan Stieglitz et al.
Evolution and Human Behavior, September 2012, Pages 438-448
Abstract:
The role of men's jealousy over a wife's infidelity in precipitating marital conflict and wife abuse is well documented. The role of women's jealousy over a husband's infidelity has received little attention, which is puzzling given high potential costs to women of withdrawal of paternal investment. We address this gap by investigating marital conflict and wife abuse among Tsimane forager-farmers of Bolivia. We test predictions derived from male jealousy and paternal disinvestment hypotheses, which consider threats and consequences of infidelity by women (male jealousy hypothesis) and men (paternal disinvestment hypothesis). The paternal disinvestment hypothesis proposes that wife abuse is employed by husbands to limit wives' mate retention effort and maintain men's opportunities to pursue extrapair sexual relationships. Interviews were conducted among husbands and wives in the same marriages using a combination of open-ended and structured items. Spouses agree that the most frequently reported type of marital argument is women's jealousy over a husband's infidelity (N=266 arguments). Roughly 60% of abusive events occurred during arguments over men's diversion of household resources (N=124 abusive events). In multivariate analyses, likelihood of wife abuse is greater in marriages where husbands have affairs, where wives are younger, and where spouses spend more time apart (N=60 husbands, 71 wives). While we find strong support for both male jealousy and paternal disinvestment hypotheses, it is men's infidelity, not women's, that precipitates most instances of marital conflict and wife abuse. We conclude that men's aggression towards their wives facilitates men's diversion of family resources for their selfish interests.
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Cohabitation, Gender, and Happiness: A Cross-Cultural Study in Thirty Countries
Olga Stavrova, Detlef Fetchenhauer & Thomas Schlösser
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, October 2012, Pages 1063-1081
Abstract:
Research commonly finds married people to be slightly happier than unmarried cohabitors - the phenomenon referred to as the cohabitation gap. In this article, we examine several relationships. First, we consider whether there are gender differences in the cohabitation gap; second, whether these gender differences are the same in different countries; and third, whether national differences in the gender role norms and gender equity in economic empowerment can explain these cross-national variations. Relying on the psychological theories of social norms, we differentiate between societal and personal gender role norms. We found that in societies with more liberal societal gender role norms, the cohabitation gap for women but not for men is substantially reduced. This effect was independent from women's personal gender role norms as well as a country's gender equity in economic empowerment. The findings are discussed in relation to the theories of social norms and gender conformity.
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Natalya Maisel & Benjamin Karney
Journal of Family Psychology, August 2012, Pages 654-660
Abstract:
Although stressful events and poor mental health predict worse intimate relationships in all segments of society, they may be especially detrimental for poorer couples who lack the financial resources that facilitate successful coping. To examine this hypothesis, associations among stress, mental health, and relationship satisfaction were examined in the Florida Family Formation study, a stratified random sample of more than 2000 Florida residents that included oversamples of low-income participants. As predicted, stressful life events and mental health problems accounted for more variance in relationship satisfaction among poorer than among more affluent individuals. These results suggest that models of relationship satisfaction addressing low-income populations may need to emphasize contextual and individual variables more than models developed in more affluent populations.
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Household Size as a Correlate of Divorce Rate: A County-Level Analysis
Yanyi Djamba et al.
Sociological Spectrum, September/October 2012, Pages 436-448
Abstract:
Divorce remains one of the main challenges facing American families today. Previous studies have shown that the risk of divorce is influenced by many factors, including spouses' characteristics and the types of neighborhoods in which they live. This study extends previous work by examining the association between household size and divorce rate at the county level using 1990 and 2000 county-level data. The results show that household size is negatively and significantly associated with divorce rate in both 1990 and 2000, regardless of the region of residence. That effect was stronger in 2000, where household size appeared as the second most significant correlate of divorce rate among all other variables considered in the linear multiple regression analysis. Such findings suggest that household size acts as a social capital variable which helps to maintain family structure, thus reducing the risk of union dissolution.
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Beate Ditzen et al.
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, forthcoming
Abstract:
Unhappy couple relationships are associated with impaired individual health, an effect thought to be mediated through ongoing couple conflicts. Little is known, however, about the underlying mechanisms regulating psychobiological stress, and particularly autonomic nervous system (ANS) reactivity, during negative couple interaction. In this study, we tested the effects of the neuropeptide oxytocin on ANS reactivity during couple conflict in a standardized laboratory paradigm. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled design, 47 heterosexual couples (total N = 94) received oxytocin or placebo intranasally prior to instructed couple conflict. Participants' behavior was videotaped and salivary alpha-amylase (sAA), a measure of ANS activity, and emotional arousal were repeatedly measured during the experiment. Oxytocin significantly reduced sAA during couple conflict in women, whereas men showed increases in sAA levels (sex * group interaction: B = -49.36, t = -2.68, p = .009). In men, these increases were related to augmented emotional arousal (r = .286, p = .028) and more positive behavior (r = .291, p = .026), whereas there was no such association in women. Our results imply sex-specific effects of oxytocin on sympathetic activity, to negative couple interaction, with the neuropeptide reducing sAA responses and emotional arousal in women while increasing them in men.
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How Do Relationship Maintenance Behaviors Affect Individual Well-Being? A Contextual Perspective
Levi Baker et al.
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
How do relationship maintenance behaviors affect individual well-being? Given that people who invest time and effort toward achieving important goals see their outcomes as more reflective of their skills and abilities than do people who invest less time and effort, engaging in relationship maintenance behaviors may lead people to experience increased individual well-being when those behaviors appear to be successful but decreased well-being when they appear to be unsuccessful. A diary study of romantic relationships, a diary study of friendships, and a longitudinal study of newlyweds provided support for this prediction. In all three studies, relationship maintenance behaviors were negatively associated with depressive mood when followed by relatively high relationship quality, but positively associated with depressive mood when followed by relatively low relationship quality. Accordingly, relationship maintenance processes are not inherently beneficial or harmful; their intrapersonal implications depend on the context in which they occur.
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More Alike Than Different: Assortative Mating and Antisocial Propensity in Adulthood
Brian Boutwell, Kevin Beaver & J.C. Barnes
Criminal Justice and Behavior, September 2012, Pages 1240-1254
Abstract:
There is an impressive amount of research indicating that spouses and mates tend be highly similar on a range of characteristics. Much of this literature has examined mate similarity in demographic characteristics, such as age and race, but there is also evidence indicating that mates tend to be similar in terms of their behaviors and personality traits. Criminological research, however, has been slow to examine how, and in what ways, mates might resemble each other for various types of antisocial outcomes. The current study addresses this gap in the literature by analyzing a national sample of mates drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort. The results of the latent factor analyses reveal a high degree of similarity for antisocial behavior and for substance abuse between mates. The implications that these findings have for criminological theory and research are discussed.
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Predicting marital separation: Do parent-child relationships matter?
Holly Schindler & Rebekah Levine Coley
Journal of Family Psychology, August 2012, Pages 499-508
Abstract:
This study used a family systems perspective in modeling predictors of marital separation within married-parent families with adolescents. Specifically, we examined whether mother-adolescent closeness and negativity, father-adolescent closeness and negativity, and couple relationship quality (mothers' and fathers' positive marital behaviors) prospectively predicted the likelihood of marital separation, operationalized as the father moving out of the household. Data were derived from the first 4 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 (n = 1649), assessing both biological and stepfather families. Results from complementary log-log analyses revealed that marital separations were related to complex family relationships. Specifically, greater mother-adolescent closeness predicted a higher likelihood of marital separation, whereas greater father-child closeness predicted a lower likelihood. In addition, mothers' more positive marital behaviors toward fathers predicted a lower likelihood of marital separation. Patterns were largely similar between biological and stepfather families, with the exception that mothers' positive marital behaviors toward fathers were more influential within biological father families.
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Laura Tach & Sarah Halpern-Meekin
Family Relations, October 2012, Pages 571-585
Abstract:
This study used the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 3,481) to test whether the association between marital quality and divorce is moderated by premarital cohabitation or nonmarital childbearing status. Prior research identified lower marital quality as a key explanation for why couples who cohabit or have children before marrying are more likely to divorce than other couples. Using event history and fixed-effects models, we found that the effect of marital quality on divorce is similar for cohabitors and noncohabitors, with cohabitors more likely to end both high- and low-quality marriages. In contrast, the relationship between marital quality and divorce is weaker for women with nonmarital births; they are less likely than others to dissolve low-quality marriages. We discuss how commitment norms and self-efficacy might explain these differences in the association between marital quality and divorce.
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The Economics of Consanguineous Marriages
Quy-Toan Do, Sriya Iyer & Shareen Joshi
Review of Economics and Statistics, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper provides an economic rationale for the practice of consanguineous marriages observed in parts of the developing world. In a model of incomplete marriage markets, dowries are viewed as ex-ante transfers made from the bride's family to the groom's family when the promise of ex-post gifts and bequests is not credible. On the other hand, consanguineous unions join families between whom ex-ante pledges are enforceable ex-post. The model predicts a negative relationship between consanguinity and dowries and higher bequests in consanguineous unions. An empirical analysis based on data from Bangladesh delivers results consistent with the model.
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Ashley Mason et al.
Personal Relationships, September 2012, Pages 551-568
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Romantic breakups arouse fundamental questions about the self: Who am I without my partner? This study examined self-concept reorganization and psychological well-being over an 8-week period in the months following a breakup. Multilevel analyses revealed that poorer self-concept recovery preceded poorer well-being and was associated with love for an ex-partner, suggesting that failure to redefine the self contributes to post-breakup distress. Psychophysiological data revealed that greater activity in the corrugator supercilia facial muscle while thinking about an ex-partner predicted poorer self-concept recovery and strengthened the negative association between love for an ex-partner and self-concept recovery. Thus, the interaction between self-report and psychophysiological data provided information about the importance of self-concept recovery to post-breakup adjustment not tapped by either method alone.
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The effects of nostalgia and avoidant attachment on relationship satisfaction and romantic motives
Jacob Juhl, Elizabeth Sand & Clay Routledge
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, August 2012, Pages 661-670
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The current research tested whether attachment-related avoidance interacts with nostalgia to predict individuals' orientation towards romantic relationships. In Study 1, participants were in a relationship, and in Study 2, participants were single. In both studies, attachment-related avoidance and anxiety were measured and participants were assigned to a nostalgia or control induction. Subsequently, participants indicated their relationship satisfaction (Study 1) or desire to pursue a romantic relationship (Study 2). Results revealed that there was a negative relationship between attachment-related avoidance and high levels of relationship satisfaction (Study 1) and relationship desire (Study 2) in the nostalgia condition, but not in the control condition. These findings build upon previous research on attachment and nostalgia to suggest that attachment-related avoidance greatly influences how nostalgia affects romantic relationship-oriented outcomes. Nostalgia appears to orient low avoidant individuals towards relationships and high avoidant individuals away from relationships.
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When Receiving Help Hurts: Gender Differences in Diurnal Cortisol Responses to Spousal Support
Erin Crockett & Lisa Neff
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Wives are considered more effective support providers than are husbands. As support promotes healthy physiological functioning, husbands should derive greater health benefits from spousal support than do wives. Yet, a growing literature indicates that men are relatively insulated from the physiological consequences of marital interactions, suggesting that men may not reap the benefits that support can provide. To examine gender differences in physiological responses to spousal support, couples completed a 6-day diary task that assessed daily support exchanges and diurnal cortisol slopes. On days of greater spousal support, wives exhibited steeper cortisol slopes, whereas husbands exhibited flattened cortisol slopes. Furthermore, for husbands, the association between daily support and cortisol was moderated by problem-solving efficacy; the less efficacious husbands perceived their problem-solving abilities, the flatter their cortisol slopes on high support days. All results held controlling for daily stress and marital satisfaction. Thus, support may incur costs for husbands' health.
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People Newly in Love Are More Responsive to Positive Feedback
Cassandra Brown & Richard Beninger
Psychological Reports, August 2012, Pages 753-763
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Passionate love is associated with increased activity in dopamine-rich regions of the brain. Increased dopamine in these regions is associated with a greater tendency to learn from reward in trial-and-error learning tasks. This study examined the prediction that individuals who were newly in love would be better at responding to reward (positive feedback). In test trials, people who were newly in love selected positive outcomes significantly more often than their single (not in love) counterparts but were no better at the task overall. This suggests that people who are newly in love show a bias toward responding to positive feedback, which may reflect a general bias towards reward-seeking.
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Destin Stewart & Dawn Szymanski
Sex Roles, September 2012, Pages 257-271
Abstract:
Pornography is both prevalent and normative in many cultures across the world, including United States' culture; however, little is known about the psychological and relational effects that it can have on young adult women involved in heterosexual romantic relationships in which their male partners view pornography. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between men's pornography use, both frequency and problematic use, on their heterosexual female partner's psychological and relational well-being among 308 young adult college women. In addition, psychometric properties for the Perceived Partner's Pornography Use Scale are provided. Participants were recruited at a large Southern public university in the United States and completed an online survey. Results revealed women's reports of their male partner's frequency of pornography use were negatively associated with their relationship quality. More perceptions of problematic use of pornography was negatively correlated with self-esteem, relationship quality, and sexual satisfaction. In addition, self-esteem partially mediated the relationship between perceptions of partner's problematic pornography use and relationship quality. Finally, results revealed that relationship length moderated the relationship between perceptions of partner's problematic pornography use and sexual satisfaction, with significant dissatisfaction being associated with longer relationship length.
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Julie Longua Peterson & Tracy DeHart
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
In the current research we suggest that in response to relationship-threat implicit self-esteem regulates connection, and this process is moderated by perceptions of a partner's commitment. We used experimental and observational methodologies to explore this possibility. Study 1 indicated that, in the relationship-threat condition, participants high (vs. low) in implicit self-esteem reported engaging in more positive nonverbal behaviors when they perceived their partner as more committed. Participants high and low in implicit self-esteem did not differ in behavior when partner commitment was low. This pattern was not evident in the control condition. Study 2 similarly revealed that participants high (vs. low) in implicit self-esteem were observed engaging in more positive nonverbal behavior during a conflict interaction when they perceived their partner as more committed. Participants high and low in implicit self-esteem did not differ in behavior when partner commitment was low. The results suggest that implicit self-esteem predicts connection and may be particularly sensitive to evidence of a partner's availability.
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Benefit or burden? Attraction in cross-sex friendship
April Bleske-Rechek et al.
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, August 2012, Pages 569-596
Abstract:
We propose that, because cross-sex friendships are a historically recent phenomenon, men's and women's evolved mating strategies impinge on their friendship experiences. In our first study involving pairs of friends, emerging adult males reported more attraction to their friend than emerging adult females did, regardless of their own or their friend's current relationship status. In our second study, both emerging and middle-aged adult males and females nominated attraction to their cross-sex friend as a cost more often than as a benefit. Younger females and middle-aged participants who reported more attraction to a current cross-sex friend reported less satisfaction in their current romantic relationship. Our findings implicate attraction in cross-sex friendship as both common and of potential negative consequence for individuals' long-term mateships.