The Role of Husbands’ and Wives’ Emotional Expressivity in the Marital Relationship

The current investigation was designed to examine the role of positive and negative emotional expressivity in the marital relationship. Data from 58 married couples were used to assess spouses’ levels of emotional expressivity and how these levels predicted reports of marital functioning. Regression analyses indicated that positive emotional expressivity had limited influence on marital functioning. Negative expressivity, however, had a strong impact on marital love, conflict, and ambivalence. Post-hoc analyses revealed significant differences between pairings in which the husband was high in negative expressivity, irrespective of wives’ negative emotional expressivity, and pairings in which both partners were low in negative emotional expressivity. These findings are discussed with respect to previous research that suggests that wives’ emotional expressivity is the major determinant of marital functioning.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45641/1/11199_2005_Article_3726.pd

What’s a (Childless) Man Without a Woman? The Differential Importance of Couple Dynamics for the Wellbeing of Childless Men and Women in the Netherlands

Using rich couple data from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study, we investigated to what extent there were gender differences in couple dynamics within childless couples (N = 163). Though the childless partners reported similar relationship satisfaction, we found gender differences in the link between relationship conflict and relationship satisfaction - the childless men were more strongly affected by the negative aspects of the partnership. This gender difference was not evident for the association between partner support and relationship satisfaction - the positive aspects of the partnership were equally important for the male and the female childless partners. Furthermore, the association between relationship satisfaction and health was stronger for the childless men than for the childless women and this difference was particularly evident when the levels of relationship satisfaction were low. These results indicate that when they are in unsatisfying romantic relationships, childless men are at a greater risk than childless women of physical and mental ill health

Giving dyadic data analysis away: A user‐friendly app for actor–partner interdependence models

Stas L, Kenny DA, Mayer A, Loeys T. Giving dyadic data analysis away: A user‐friendly app for actor–partner interdependence models. Personal Relationships. 2018;25(1):103-119.The actor–partner interdependence model (APIM) is widely used for analyzing dyadic data. Although dyadic research has become immensely popular, its statistical complexity can be a barrier. To remedy this, a free user-friendly web application, called APIM_SEM, has been developed. This app automatically performs the statistical analyses (i.e., structural equation modeling) of both simple and complex APIMs. It allows the researcher to analyze distinguishable or indistinguishable dyads, to examine dyadic patterns, to estimate actor and partner effects of one or two predictors, and to control for covariates. Results are provided in software and text format, complemented by summary tables and figures. As an illustration, the effect of perception of the partner on satisfaction is assessed by fitting APIMs with varying complexity

Gender Differences in Relationship Awareness and Marital Satisfaction among Young Married Couples

Relationship awareness is defined here as thinking about interaction patterns, comparisons, or contrasts between oneself and one's partner in a relationship. This concept provides a frame-work for examining the effects of spouses' thinking and talking about their own relationships on marital satisfaction and contentment with life. During interviews conducted with 42 married couples, wives talked more about their relationships than their husbands did. Wives' marital satisfaction was positively associated with the husbands' degree of relationship talk during the interview. The association between husbands' relationship talk and wives' marital well-being was strongest for wives who talked very little about their relationship. Husbands' marital satisfaction was not related to either spouse's relationship talk. A similar pattern of results was found for contentment with life. Findings are discussed in light of previous research that focuses on gender differences in relationships, in the sense of self and interpersonal communication.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68960/2/10.1177_0146167292181015.pd