Death is a universal event that all living things experience. Older adults, in particular, are more mindful of death than younger generations because of their proximity and increased exposure to it. In addition, thoughts of one’s own death often increase with the death of a spouse. Previous research has explored the role of social support in death acceptance and the effect of previous marital satisfaction on a widow’s well-being. However, there is a lack of research regarding the experience of a widow’s personal death acceptance relative to spousal death acceptance and marital satisfaction. This phenomenological study aims to better understand the personal death acceptance of eight older widows (age 65+) through their experiences with marital satisfaction and spousal death acceptance. Seven women and one man participated in two rounds of semi-structured telephone interviews and completed supplemental surveys regarding their marriage and death attitudes. Findings indicate that essential dimensions of recalled high marital satisfaction and spousal death acceptance relates to experiences of positive personal death acceptance.

The relationship "between touch "behavior, marital satisfaction, and touch expectation in stable marriages was explored. Subjects included couples, married a minimum of seven years, chosen at random from a community of middle-class families. Spanier's Dyadic Adjustment Scale, Jourard's Body Accessibility Questionnaire, and a touch expectation question on the data sheet were utilized to measure each subject's level of marital satisfaction, touch behavior, and touch expectation. These instruments were hand delivered to each couple and returned by mail to the experimenter.

Master of Science / School of Family Studies and Human Services / Melinda S. Markham / Interpersonal aspects of a relationship (i.e., equality, trust, disclosure, etc.) as they relate to finances have important implications for marital satisfaction; however, emphasis on financial transparency, “the open and honest disclosure of one’s finances,” has yet to be researched. To increase our capacity to study the role of finances in the marital relationship, the purpose of this study was to develop the Financial Transparency Scale (FTS) to assess financial transparency between married partners. A sample of 183 married individuals in their first 5 years of their first marriage completed an online survey, consisting of the FTS and four related scales. Principal components analysis (PCA) was conducted to determine the FTS is comprised of three components: financial partnership, financial secrecy, and financial trust and disclosure of the individual partner. The first component, financial partnership (eigenvalue = 10.909), consisted of 18 items and accounted for 41.96% of the variance and had a high internal reliability of (α = .95). Component 2, financial secrecy (eigenvalue = 2.845), consisted of three items and accounted for 10.94% of variance with an internal reliability of (α = .93). Component 3, financial trust and disclosure of the individual partner (eigenvalue = 1.76), consisted of five items and accounted for 6.77% of total variance with an internal reliability (α = .83). The FTS was positively correlated with four related scales: the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale, the Shared Goals and Values Scale, the Frequency of Financial Management Scale, and the Communication Patterns Questionnaire – Short Form, each of which are key behaviors of financial and marital satisfaction. The FTS will benefit financial practitioners as they can use the scale to determine the level of financial transparency between married individuals, drawing attention to areas of concern such as financial secrecy between partners. For researchers, this scale provides a measurement for a sophisticated perspective on the interpersonal factors that mediate financial transparency between married individuals.

The challenges that military families face due to deployments can become very stressful. These changes directly impact at-home partners and children, changing the dynamic and routines of the entire family. The new roles and routines established can be conflicting for both partners, resulting in marital conflict and lower levels of satisfaction. In general, it has been found that the quality and frequency of communication are related to the quality of relationships. However, for deployed military families, engaging in frequent and good communication between couples can be challenging. This study will examine if quality and quantity of communication are related to the level of satisfaction in deployed military couples. Also, what method of communication is more likely to related to satisfaction will be explored.

With evidence growing of the negative impact materialism exerts on the individual and the marital relationship, this study examines the effects of materialism on the marital relationship as well as the potential moderating effects of forgiveness. Specifically examined is the association between materialism and marital instability considering trait forgiveness as a potential moderating variable. The data for this study were taken from the Flourishing Families Project. Materialism, forgiveness, and marital instability measures with actor effects, partner effects, and moderation effects are analyzed. The findings of this study supported the hypothesis that materialism is related to marital instability and that forgiveness moderates the effect of materialism on marital instability for husbands. However, this hypothesis was not supported for wives. Findings also confirmed that husband and wife trait forgiveness moderated the effects of husband materialism on husband marital instability.

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It is estimated that the divorce rate for marriages in which at least one party is a physician is 10-20% higher than the general population. Predicting the variables that contribute to marital satisfaction, identifying the skills associated with those behaviors and developing a residency curriculum to teach the skills to resident physicians is the focus of this study. Intimacy, conflict resolution and emotional expressiveness have all been identified as important aspects of marital satisfaction. We will determine how each of these variables contributes to marital satisfaction using multilevel logistic regression. The results will be used to develop a skills based training curriculum for residency to improve the lives and well-being of physicians and their families.

Over 1.5 million U.S. soldiers have deployed oversees since the beginning of the War on Terror in 2001; consequently, spouses are faced with new physical, emotional, and psychological challenges. Many researchers have documented the effects of deployment on marriages and families. However, few researchers have explored the correlates of trust, marital commitment, and marital satisfaction for wives during deployment. This quantitative study, grounded in risk and resilience theory and interdependence theory, used a web-based survey to investigate the relationship between perceived likelihood of spousal infidelity, trust, marital commitment, and marital satisfaction in a sample of 127 military wives whose husbands were deployed oversees. The 'Events with Others' questionnaire, Dyadic Trust Scale, Commitment Inventory Revised, Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale, and Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale were used. Results indicated that length of deployment did not have a statistically significant impact on marital satisfaction. Bivariate correlation analysis indicated statistically significant relationships among wives' perceived likelihood of spousal infidelity, trust, marital commitment, and marital satisfaction. After controlling for wives' attachment style, marital commitment and trust were significant explanatory variables of marital satisfaction. The findings from this study can inform establishing effective programs to support military marriages during deployment. Such programs will promote social change by improving satisfaction, decreasing relationship conflicts, and reducing the rate of divorce. The Armed Forces may benefit from the results of this study by addressing marital commitment and trust issues prior to deployment, thereby supporting wives, husbands, and children during deployment.

The purpose of this study was to determine the significance between advice, marital expectations, and marital satisfaction. This study also explored the sources couples use to gather information, or rather where they receive premarital advice, and if it was helpful. Included in this study were husbands (n = 56) and wives (n = 56) who had been married less than one year, to classify them as newlyweds. The relationship between sources of information and expectations was found to be highly significant for variables related to family of origin. It was also found that a high percentage of couples gather information from informal sources rather than from more formal methods such as premarital education classes and premarital therapy. Expectations were found to be moderately to highly significant determinants of marital satisfaction.

The current study examined marital satisfaction and determined if racial identity or level of religiosity had an impact overall on marital satisfaction among married African American couples. The following instruments were used to measure marital satisfaction, racial identity, level of religiosity, and social desirability: the Marital Satisfaction Inventory- Revised (Snyder, 1997), Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity (Sellers, Rowley, Chavous, Shelton, & Smith, 1998), Religious Life Inventory (Batson, Schoenrade & Ventis, 1993), and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (Reynolds, 1982). The majority of the 140 participants consisted of married couples recruited from three major Christian churches in Philadelphia, a local insurance company, and from multiple community based organizations. Results indicate that no single factor alone is predictive of marital satisfaction but a combination of factors produced a moderately significant multiple correlation. Significant relationships were found among marital satisfaction and the following factors: number of children, multiple subscales on the MIBI, and the external subscale on the Religious Life Inventory. Couples who had more children reported higher levels of marital satisfaction. Results also showed a significant relationship between marital satisfaction in couples who had similar views on racial identity when subscales were used as the sole measure of marital satisfaction and racial identity. Finally, there was a significant relationship between couples who report higher levels of marital satisfaction and also use religion as a means to satisfy their own needs through socialization, etc. / Counseling Psychology