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ICPR Abstracts: Session 36

Adaptation and Change in Marriage:

A 13-Year Longitudinal Study

Adaptation and Change in Marriage: An Overview

Laura J. Shebilske
University of Texas at Austin
The papers presented in this symposium, all of which are based on a longitudinal study of
marriage conducted from 1981 to 1994, examine how broad contextual forces affect
marriage and how couples adapt to each other in marriage. The introductory presentation,
given by Laura Shebilske, will provide an overview of the symposium as well as the larger
project within which it is embedded. The first empirical study, presented by Anne Lucchetti,
examines the processes through which economic hardship creates marital distress. The
second and third papers examine psychological characteristics that spouses bring to
marriage. John Caughlin will discuss how spouses' personality characteristics (i.e., "negative
affectivity") affect marital satisfaction, and Renate Houts will demonstrate how a couple's
level of incompatibility relates to the development of distress. The fourth and fifth papers,
presented by Szu-Chia Chang and Elizabeth Johnson, examine the ways in which couples
deal with, or adapt to, disappointments and differences. All of the papers presented in this
symposium use data from a four-phase study of 168 predominantly white working-class
couples.
Information on the spouses' demographic background, psychological attributes (e.g.,
personality, compatibility, role expectations), and their patterns of interaction were gathered
in 1981, two months after couples were married. With the exception of personality, which is
assumed to be stable, parallel data were collected during 1982 and 1983, thus allowing us
to capture marital adaptation and change. Due to the harsh economic conditions many of
the couples experienced in the 1980's, more detailed financial information was gathered
during the follow-up phase in 1994. At each phase of the investigation, data were gathered
about marital satisfaction from both spouses.
Economic Hardship and Marital Distress
Anne E. Lucchetti
University of Texas
Research conducted across several decades of the 20th century has demonstrated that
economic hard times can have severe adverse consequences for families, including an
increased risk of marital distress (Bakke, 1940; Conger, Conger, Elder, Lorenz, Simons, &
Whitbeck, 1993; Elder, 1976). The present study continues this tradition by
examining the processes through which economic hardship affects the quality of marital
relationships for couples 13 years into marriage. Specifically, this research was
designed as a conceptual replication and elaboration of Conger and Elder's (1994) Family
Stress Model. The Conger and Elder model proposed that economic hardships
and declines in marital satisfaction are mediated through economic pressure, which
produces emotional distress and negative marital interaction patterns. In the present study,
economic hardship engendered feelings of economic pressure. This pressure was related to
the emotional distress husbands and wives felt, which, in turn, gave rise to more negativity
and conflict in the marital relationship. Finally, this negative climate, along with partners'
high emotional distress, was negatively associated with lower levels of marital satisfaction

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for both husbands and wives. The results of this study supported a "Mediated Marital Stress
Model."
Processes by which Personality Comes to Affect Marital Satisfaction: Interpretive
and Interactive Models
John P. Caughlin
University of Texas
More than fifty years ago, Lewis Terman (1938) proposed that "in a large proportion of
unsuccessful marriages it is possible to discover either in the husband or the wife, or
perhaps both, numerous elements of the unhappy temperament and evidence that these
elements have played a causal role [in the demise of marriage]." Since that time, research
has established a link between personality, particularly "negative affectivity" (a.k.a.,
neuroticism, anxiety), and marital satisfaction. The majority of this research reports
connections between people's personality and their own satisfaction. Such research implies
an interpretive model: personality affects they way one views a relationship. Surprisingly,
little research has examined the potential impact of personality on both partners in the
relationship. The possibility that one's personality can affect a partner's satisfaction can be
explained by a second interpretive model. Such a model proposes that personality affects
communication in a marriage, both because personality relates to one's own behavioral
tendencies and because one's personality elicits certain types of responses from the partner.
To test the relative utility of the two models (interpretive and interactive), structural
equation modeling was used. Focusing on negative affectivity, the aspect of personality
most consistently related to marital satisfaction, the structural equation modeling suggested
that both models help explain how personality affects marital satisfaction. Specifically, the
structural equations based on the interactive model adequately explained the relationships
between negative affectivity and marital satisfaction at both two years and 13 years into
marriage. The structural equation often fit significantly better by adding an additional path
linking negative affectivity and own marital satisfaction, suggesting the interpretive model is
also important.
Compatibility: A Behavioral Model of Relationship Development and Deterioration
Renate M. Houts
Kent State University
This presentation examines behavioral compatibility as it relates to marital stability and
partners' well-being over 13 years. Leisure activities and role tasks that each couple
reported engaging in were used to determine relevant activities for inclusion in the measure
of preference similarity. Compatibility scores were thus individualized for each couple; these
scores were further refined for relevance by weighting each activity by the proportion of
time spent in the activity by the couple. Partners' well-being was a composite score, taking
into account a person's satisfaction with various areas of his or her life (e.g., marital
satisfaction, job satisfaction, financial satisfaction). Preliminary results indicate that
compatibility does not appear directly related to a propensity to divorce, but instead
influences marital stability through its impact on each partner's well-being. Additionally,
incompatibility in role preferences and leisure interests appears to have a stronger influence
on partners' well-being in relationships that end in divorce early; that is, although these
couples are no more incompatible than the other couples, their well-being is more closely
tied to their level of compatibility. Possible reasons for this finding are explored.
Adaptation in Early Marriage

Szu-Chia Chang
University of Texas at Austin
Early writing on marriage (e.g., Waller, 1938) portrays marital adjustment as a process that
couples go through in order to adapt to each other. However, subsequent marital adjustment
research depicts adjustment as an end state. the present study attempts to recapture
marital adjustment as a process. In this manner, two models, optimization and adaptation,
were tested. Optimization reflects a mutual influence process between the spouses.
Adaptation, on the other hand, occurs when a one-way pattern of influence exists.
Husbands and wives provided information about the affective quality of marital interaction
and completed scales indicating the degree to which they desired change in their partners'
behavior. Wives, more than husbands, desired changes in their spouses' behavior. However,
wives were no more likely than their husbands to change their behavior to accommodate
their partners' desires. Overall, the more spouses desired change from each other, the more
they used conflictive and the less they used maintenance strategies. Such a combination of
strategies is ineffective in producing accommodation and thus may lead individuals to
gradually give up their effort for change in their partner.
The Development of Consensus During the Transition to Parenthood
Elizabeth Johnson
University of Texas at Austin
The transition to parenthood often produces a reorganization of behavior patterns on both
the individual and couple level. This reorganization is often guided by traditional norms
about the expected roles of mothers and fathers. However, these norms may not necessarily
emerge immediately after the birth of a child. New parents must adapt their expectations to
both their particular circumstances and to their partners' expectations. Consensus about
who should perform child care tasks is important because it lessens the need for continuous
negotiation and reduced opportunities for disappointment and conflict. Little is known about
the processes by which couples adjust their prenatal preferences about child care
tasks to the reality of parenthood. This longitudinal study examined the development of
couple consensus on preferences for child care tasks. Husbands' and wives' preferences,
uncorrelated before the birth of a child, became aligned over the transition to parenthood.
This process appeared driven by wives increased preferences to do child care tasks by
themselves. However, the more both husbands and wives loved their spouse, the more
willing they were to do child care tasks.
Mark Baldwin - mailto:baldwin@uwinnipeg.ca, Alison Wiigs - mailto:wiigs@ucalgary.ca