A Longitudinal Study of Conflict in Early Marriage

Abstract

Thirty-three couples were assessed in terms of their communication and relationship satisfaction, just before marriage and twice during the first 2 years, using questionnaire and interaction-based methods. There were few changes over time, except that couples lower in relationship satisfaction temporarily decreased their use of negative strategies and increased their use of positive strategies after 1 year. Spouses high in satisfaction after 2 years of marriage were less likely to manipulate the partner, to avoid dealing with conflict, to behave coercively and to engage in destructive patterns such as demand-withdraw. There were moderately strong effects of communication behaviours on concurrent relationship satisfaction. Communication behaviours predicted later satisfaction for wives only. Relationship satisfaction also predicted later communication behaviours for both husbands and wives, indicating a reciprocal relationship between these variables.

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