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Relationships are significantly stressed in the Southeastern United States. Of the six states in the Gulf region (Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas), four are in ...

Relationship stability represents a major economic interest not only to Florida, but to every state in the nation. The cumulative expenses related to relationship dissolution (including lit...

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the role that friendship, trust, and love played in the courtship and marriages of eleven German heterosexual couples (twenty-two individuals, including three couples of mixed national heritage) who reported their marriages to be happy. A conceptual model is proposed of how the components of friendship, trust, and love (i.e., love experienced as emotion, behavior, and commitment) may form a foundation for happy German marriages. Identified themes inform suggestions for how these findings can be used by educators, practitioners, and clergy to support and strengthen German marriages.

The main objective of this study was to extend previous research in the area of longitudinal marital satisfaction by examining how marital issues, including decision-making, activities, affection, conflict, financial matters, stability, and values, changed over the first 5 years of marriage for 242 Utah, Latter-Day-Saint individuals. In addition, this study examined whether change occurs differently for husbands versus wives and for at-risk individuals versus non-risk individuals. The results showed that four marital issues worsened over time (activities, affection, conflict, and stability). Two of the six subscales (activities and affection) were found to differ significantly by gender. In addition, four subscales were significantly different for at-risk couples when compared with non-risk couples (decision-making, activities, conflict, and stability). Limitations and recommendations are discussed.

In this study the marital quality of respondents who were currently receiving government assistance was compared with those who were not. Contextual variables (e.g., gender, age, age at first marriage, religiosity, education, etc.) and interactional variables (i.e., escalating negativity, criticism, negative interpretation, withdrawal) were measured as potential correlates with marital quality. Results indicated that those who received government assistance differed significantly from those who did not on all six indicators of marital quality that were measured and on 8 of 11 contextual variables measured. Findings from this study will help policymakers, therapists, and other helping professionals gain an increased awareness of the needs of these two distinct populations and how to target educational programs to best address those needs.