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This article considers the quality of the evidence that marriage confers unique benefits, and that, as such, social policies should be enacted to encourage couples, particularly those with few economic resources, to get married and stay together. Public concern about the future of marriage in the United States, we show, is rooted in demographic changes that reflect not so much a turning away from marriage, but an increasing openness to postponing marriage, living together out of wedlock, or divorcing. We examine why people who are motivated to marry hold back from doing so when they see the warning signs of future problems, and what happens when they marry despite them. We argue that marriages are fashioned in the images of the partners and are shaped by the opportunities and constraints of the ecological settings in which they are situated. As such, the promotion of family health and stability will require an approach that attends to couples' psychological, social, and economic needs.

An explanation for wives' shift in preferences about the division of child care labor before and after the birth of their first child is tested (N=69 couples). Evidence is presented that love for their husbands motivates wives to align their preferences with their husbands'. The mediating role of love is explored. (Author/EMK)

This study examined the long-term consequences of idealization in marriage, using both daily diary and questionnaire data collected from a sample of 168 newlywed couples who participated in a 4-wave, 13-year longitudinal study of marriage. Idealization was operationalized as the tendency for people to perceive their partner as more agreeable than would be expected based on their reports of their partner's agreeable and disagreeable behaviors. Spouses who idealized one another were more in love with each other as newlyweds. Longitudinal analyses suggested that spouses were less likely to suffer declines in love when they idealized one another as newlyweds. Newlywed levels of idealization did not predict divorce. Keywords: agreeableness; divorce; idealization; marriage; positive illusions

This article examines spouses' sex role ideology and personality dispositions in connection with marital behavior patterns. It shows that sex role ideology and sex typing in personality are distinct properties, that husbands and wives typically bring to marriage a mixture of gender-related attributes and beliefs that, in turn, create marital behavior patterns that contain a variety of traditional and nontraditional elements. Spouses' sex role attitudes and the extent to which they possess stereotypic personality attributes, such as 'masculinity' (instrumentality) and 'femininity' (expressiveness), are examined in connection with marital roles, the extent to which spouses communicate positive and negative affect to each other, and the amount of time they spend with friends and family. The results suggest a new direction for studying the intersection of gender and relationships, one that moves beyond simplistic typologies that categorize marriages along a single dimension of traditionalism to one that examines the character and quality of the marriage as it is influenced by (or covaries with) particular gender-related attributes and beliefs.

A longitudinal study examined whether the transition to parenthood affects the amount of time spouses pursue leisure activities - both together and apart - and the degree to which they pursue leisure activities they particularly enjoy. Results indicated that (a) new parents and childless couples do not differ in the amount of time they spend in leisure activities both spouses like, (b) parenthood reduces the amount of time new fathers engage in leisure activities independently, (c) parenthood increases the amount of time couples pursue activities together that are liked by the wife but not the husband, and (d) parenthood reduces the amount of time wives pursue leisure activities they dislike but their husbands like. The results show that parenthood restricts husbands' independent leisure pursuits and increases the extent to which spouses' leisure activities reflect the preferences of wives rather than husbands.

The interplay between 3 types of socioemotional behavior (affection, sexual interest, and negativity) and marital satisfaction was studied using data from new married couples followed over 2 years. Affection and negativity (but not sexual interest) were consistently associated cross-sectionally with marital satisfaction. Longitudinal analyses revealed a gender-differentiated pattern suggesting a more complex relationship between satisfaction and marital behavior than previously shown. Negativity, regardless of whether it was expressed by the husband or the wife, was associated with declines in wives' (but not husbands') satisfaction. Wives of husbands who were relatively negative early in marriage became more negative themselves. Wives who were relatively less satisfied early in marriage (but not husbands) were married to spouses who became more negative with time.

A longitudinal study examined the connection between mothers' and fathers' sex role orientations and employment situations and the parents' involvement in child-oriented activities. Reported are interrelations among measures of husbands' and wives' sex role orientations, association between sex role attributes and extent of participation in the workforce, and connections between employment situations, sex role orientation, and involvement with children. (Author/RH)

Dyadic trust proved to be associated with love and with intimacy of self-disclosure, especially for longer married partners. It varied by level of commitment. Partners reciprocated trust more than either love or depth of self-disclosure. (Author)

According to the disillusionment model, dating partners may idealize each other due to romantic feelings and partners’ presenting themselves favorably to each other. However, this idealization can fade once couples marry and experience routine daily living. Highly passionate (i.e., quickly accelerating) courtships, replete with idealization, likely make partners vulnerable to subsequent declines in marital affection—or disillusionment. To test this notion, 168 newlywed couples provided retrospective survey and interview information on how passionate their courtship was and brief series of daily assessments of affectionate behavior during the first 2 years of marriage. Results from multilevel analyses showed that respondents who experienced highly passionate courtships reported their spouses as behaving more affectionately toward them as newlyweds, but experienced declines in perceived affectionate expression as the marriage progressed. Results persisted after controlling for possible confounding variables (e.g., age at dating onset, courtship length, premarital love, cohabitation, and conflict). Findings support the disillusionment model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]