The Social and Cultural Construction of Singlehood among Young, Single Mormons

Religious young adults interpret their single experiences based on an intricate system of influences that include personal beliefs, family, religious teachings, and friendships. This qualitative study of 24 never-married, young Mormon men and women examined the social and cultural construction of singlehood based on: (1) definitions of singlehood, (2) influences on the construction of singlehood, and (3) feelings about being single. A major theme of this research emerged in the way participants defined singlehood: by what they lacked and by seeking to end their temporary single state through marriage. Families and religious teachings interacted to form the strongest influences on participants construction of singlehood, while supportive friends helped respondents feel that they were not alone

Machine learning uncovers the most robust self-report predictors of relationship quality across 43 longitudinal couples studies

Given the powerful implications of relationship quality for health and well-being, a central mission of relationship science is explaining why some romantic relationships thrive more than others. This large-scale project used machine learning (i.e., Random Forests) to 1) quantify the extent to which relationship quality is predictable and 2) identify which constructs reliably predict relationship quality. Across 43 dyadic longitudinal datasets from 29 laboratories, the top relationship-specific predictors of relationship quality were perceived-partner commitment, appreciation, sexual satisfaction, perceived-partner satisfaction, and conflict. The top individual-difference predictors were life satisfaction, negative affect, depression, attachment avoidance, and attachment anxiety. Overall, relationship-specific variables predicted up to 45% of variance at baseline, and up to 18% of variance at the end of each study. Individual differences also performed well (21% and 12%, respectively). Actor-reported variables (i.e., own relationship-specific and individual-difference variables) predicted two to four times more variance than partner-reported variables (i.e., the partner’s ratings on those variables). Importantly, individual differences and partner reports had no predictive effects beyond actor-reported relationship-specific variables alone. These findings imply that the sum of all individual differences and partner experiences exert their influence on relationship quality via a person’s own relationship-specific experiences, and effects due to moderation by individual differences and moderation by partner-reports may be quite small. Finally, relationship-quality change (i.e., increases or decreases in relationship quality over the course of a study) was largely unpredictable from any combination of self-report variables. This collective effort should guide future models of relationships

Simple Relationship Quality Measures

Issues in applied survey research, including minimizing respondent burden to encourage survey completion and the increasing administration of questionnaires over smartphones, have intensified efforts to create short measures. We conducted two studies to examine the psychometric properties of single-item measures of four close-relationship variables: satisfaction, love, conflict, and commitment. Study 1 was longitudinal, surveying an initial sample of 121 college-age dating couples at three monthly phases. Romantic partners completed single- and multi-item measures of the four constructs, along with other variables, to examine test-retest reliability and convergent (single-item measures with their corresponding multi-item scales), concurrent, and predictive validity. Our single-item measures of satisfaction, love, and commitment exhibited impressive psychometric qualities, but our single-item conflict measure performed somewhat less strongly. Study 2, a cross-sectional online survey (n = 280; mainly through Facebook), showed strong convergent validity of the single-item measures, including a .60 correlation between single- and multi-item conflict measures

Couples’ Perceptual Agreement Regarding Their Relationship

We introduce an instrument assessing the unique niche of romantic partners feeling they share the same memories and feelings about their relationship: the Shared Reality regarding one’s Relationship (SRR) scale. Existing instruments are less specific, assessing partners’ sense of agreement not only about their relationship, but topics outside of it (e.g., whether they share an opinion about a particular movie). We collected cross-sectional data on 656 romantically partnered individuals (from dating to marriage), testing alpha (equal item-weighting) and composite (non-equal weighting) reliability, and convergent, concurrent, criterion-related, and discriminant validity (two types). We also conducted a test-retest reliability study with a roughly two-three week interval between assessments (N = 58 individuals). The SRR scale exhibited satisfactory psychometric properties in these areas

Disillusionment Predicts Depression

The present study examines whether marital disillusionment prospectively predicts individuals’ depressive symptoms or whether the reverse is true, in a regional U.S. newlywed sample surveyed twice roughly 2.5 years apart. Even using extensive control variables, wives’ Phase-1 disillusionment predicted their own Phase-2 depressive symptoms (an actor effect); an analogous pathway did not occur in husbands. No findings in the reverse direction emerged. Further three longitudinal partner-effects in the expected direction emerged, as wives’ P1 disillusionment predicted husbands’ P2 depression and P2 disillusionment, and husbands’ P1 disillusionment predicted wives’ P2 depression. Further, modest support was found for spouses’ interpersonal dynamics (specifically, wives’ satisfaction with time spent together with their husband) accounting for some of the association between wives’ disillusionment and depressive symptoms. The findings extend existing literature by showing that both actor- and partner-effects of disillusionment temporally precede individuals’ depressive symptoms. The discussion examines theoretical and practical implications for disillusionment research

The Polish Translation of the MDS

Three studies sought to translate the Relationship Disillusionment Scale (RDS-English Version) into Polish, evaluate the new scale’s psychometric properties, and extend previous validation work on the instrument. After translation and back-translation of the RDS-English Version, Study 1 administered the RDS-English Version to 20 bilingual university students in Poland, followed two months later by the Polish-language version RDS-PL. Cross-language test-retest reliability was .59. Study 2 administered the RDS-PL to 318 individuals in an online survey, who completed additional Polish-language measures to examine convergent and discriminant validity. Confirmatory factor analyses generally supported a one-factor solution for the RDS-PL. Significant correlations in the expected direction with variables such as relationship commitment, relationship depth, forgiveness-benevolence, and resentment-avoidance supported the convergent validity of the RDS-PL. Study 3, which surveyed 280 bilingual individuals online, documented invariance of RDS-PL factor loadings between ever-married and non-married participants. In addition, several Polish- and English-language variables (e.g., satisfaction, conflict intensity/reactivity, commitment, intimacy) correlated with the RDS-PL (more strongly in married than unmarried participants), further supporting the convergent validity of the RDS-PL. Studies 2 and 3 also provided modest support for its discriminant validity

Premarital predictors of marital outcomes

textThis study examines whether couples’ expression of affection and negativity as newlyweds and over the first two years of marriage can be predicted from couples’ courtship experiences. The usefulness of three developmental models – disillusionment, emergent distress, and enduring dynamics – that have been put forth to explain the link between courtship and marital outcomes is explored empirically. Previous research has shown that couples who become disillusioned early in marriage are highly affectionate as newlyweds but experience a dramatic loss of affection during the early years of marriage. In contrast, the literature on marital relationships shows that many couples experience increases in distress over the course of marriage. Finally, couples who experience stable marital patterns can be differentiated regarding their marital patterns both when they are newlyweds and later in marriage. Consistent with the disillusionment model, newlyweds’ initial levels of, and couples’ declines in, vii affectional expression over the first two years of marriage was predicted by (a) couples’ shorter courtship length, (b) men’s younger age at marriage, (c) men’s lower levels of premarital ambivalence, (d) both partners’ higher levels of premarital maintenance behavior, (e) the speed with which partners fell in love with each other, and (f) both partners’ deeper feelings of love for one another during courtship. No support was found for the emergent distress model. Contrary to the predictions of the emergent distress model, couples’ length of courtship, their acceleration of commitment, and men’s speed of falling in love with their partner predicted declines rather than increases in negativity over the first two years of marriage. Finally, support for the enduring dynamics model was provided by findings, which showed that premarital conflict predicted couples’ newlywed levels of affectional expression, but not changes in affectional expression over the first two years of marriage. Similarly, partners’ premarital maintenance behavior predicted couples’ newlywed levels of negativity, but not increases in negativity over time. The discussion of the results centers on the contributions of the study for current research that seeks to predict marital outcomes and the usefulness of the three developmental models for explaining the link between courtship patterns and affectional expression and negativity early in marriage.Human Ecolog