The Premarital Communication Roots of Marital Distress and Divorce: The First Five Years of Marriage
The Premarital Communication Roots of Marital Distress and Divorce: The First Five Years of Marriage
Introduction
Due to the high amount of marriages that end in divorce, there has been an increase in the study of marital distress. From these studies many theories have been made on how couples can maintain a happy and healthy relationship from before marriage and into the early years of marriage. While there have been studies of why people marry and divorce, "we know very little about how negatives and positives before marriage influence the course of marriage and how changes in positive and negatives over time influence marital outcomes" (Markman 289). According to the authors of the study, "this study is the first, to our knowledge, to investigate how positive and negative communication, assessed by both behavioral and self-report measures, change over time, and how these changes predict marital outcomes"(290).
Negative and Positive Communication as Risk and Protective Factors In 1979, Heller and Monahan published one of the first studies and discussions of positive and negative communication in marriages. The two discussed that "couples with communication-based risk factors and lower protective factors would be more vulnerable to the development of relationship problems" (290). This basically means that couples who were not able to communicate effectively and those who lacked the ability to solve conflicts were more likely to struggle and develop issues throughout their relationship. Early researchers also questioned how well participants could report on their own communication behaviors. This lack of certainty lead to "the addition of laboratory interaction tasks that allowed for both research participant and observer ratings of interactions" (290).
Cross-Sectional Studies In order to determine the differences between distressed couples and nondistressed couples studies were conducted in order to compare the two. The studies reported that
Introduction
Due to the high amount of marriages that end in divorce, there has been an increase in the study of marital distress. From these studies many theories have been made on how couples can maintain a happy and healthy relationship from before marriage and into the early years of marriage. While there have been studies of why people marry and divorce, "we know very little about how negatives and positives before marriage influence the course of marriage and how changes in positive and negatives over time influence marital outcomes" (Markman 289). According to the authors of the study, "this study is the first, to our knowledge, to investigate how positive and negative communication, assessed by both behavioral and self-report measures, change over time, and how these changes predict marital outcomes"(290).
Negative and Positive Communication as Risk and Protective Factors In 1979, Heller and Monahan published one of the first studies and discussions of positive and negative communication in marriages. The two discussed that "couples with communication-based risk factors and lower protective factors would be more vulnerable to the development of relationship problems" (290). This basically means that couples who were not able to communicate effectively and those who lacked the ability to solve conflicts were more likely to struggle and develop issues throughout their relationship. Early researchers also questioned how well participants could report on their own communication behaviors. This lack of certainty lead to "the addition of laboratory interaction tasks that allowed for both research participant and observer ratings of interactions" (290).
Cross-Sectional Studies In order to determine the differences between distressed couples and nondistressed couples studies were conducted in order to compare the two. The studies reported that