The purpose of this study is to explore a possible method of diagnosing marital difficulties. This is an exploratory investigation into the possibility of developing a particular method for marital diagnosis rather than a specific test for such a diagnosis. This method consists of a series of related sentence stems which the subject completes and then rates as to their degree of difficulty.

The problem with which this investigation was concerned, was that of determining the relationships between personality adjustment, social interaction abilities and marital adjustment. The following hypotheses were investigated: 1) there will be a significant relationship between individual personality adjustment and marital adjustment, and 2) there will be a significant relationship between marital harmony and social interaction abilities.

The ability of marital partners to directly change a currently unhappy marriage to a happy one may be a function of each individual's conscious awareness of the topography, frequency, and other parameters of his own behaviors, as well as the effects or consequences these behaviors bring to bear on his spouse. This study was an attempt to combine the use of relevant behavioral awareness and a token economy to rehabilitate a marriage in crisis.

The purpose of this pilot study was to examine the characters portrayed on "prime-time" television drama in an attempt to determine how they compared, with the distribution represented in U. S. Census Bureau data for sex, marital status and occupational status. In pursuing this objective, it was also concerned with the development of a method of content analysis that would not require use of a videotape recorder.

Marital relationships play an important role in family functioning and in the development of sibling relationships. From a family systems perspective, other subsystems within the family, such as coparenting interactions, could explain the effects of the marital relationship on sibling bonds. Specifically, the quality of the coparenting relationship may mediate the association between marital functioning and sibling relationship quality. The current study examined relationships between these three subsystems (marital, coparenting, and sibling) as self-reported by mothers, fathers, and children with siblings. As part of a larger project, families with a child aged 8 to 11 and at least one sibling (N = 75) completed the Dyadic Adjustment Scale and the Coparenting Scale (both completed by mother and father), as well as the Sibling Relationship Questionnaire (completed by target child). Results suggested that marital functioning is a significant predictor of functioning within the coparenting relationship. Predicted associations did not emerge between sibling relationship quality and marital or coparenting relationships, with minor exceptions, and the coparenting relationship did not mediate the association between marital and sibling relationship quality. Implications of the current findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Meta-analyses with 144 correlations from 44 studies to assess the relationship between experienced, father-to-mother, and mother-to-father violence in the family of origin and partner violence for males and females in clinical, community and student samples.

This study examined associations among romantic attachment anxiety and avoidance, positive and negative religious coping, and marital adjustment in a community sample of 81 heterosexual couples. Both spouses completed the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale (ECR), a brief measure of religious coping (Brief RCOPE), the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS), and a demographic questionnaire as part of a larger study. Multilevel modeling (MLM) for the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM) was used. Attachment avoidance was inversely related to positive religious coping. In contrast, attachment anxiety was directly related to negative religious coping. Positive religious coping buffered the relationship between attachment avoidance and marital adjustment. In contrast, attachment anxiety was detrimental to marital adjustment regardless of positive religious coping, and positive religious coping was related to higher marital adjustment only in the context of low attachment anxiety. Surprisingly, the spouse's attachment anxiety was inversely related to the respondent's marital adjustment only when the respondent reported low levels of negative religious coping, whereas in the context of high negative religious coping, the partner's attachment anxiety was related to higher marital adjustment. Results support using attachment theory to conceptualize religious coping and the consideration of both attachment and religious coping constructs in counseling.

The ethnodemographic differences in marital behavior: changes and attitudes Abstract This work deals with the ethnic differentiation of marital behavior in Kazakhstan. The study of marital behavior of ethnic groups is important and necessary, especially in a multiethnic state as Kazakhstan. Undoubtedly, the institution of marriage regulates the social reproduction of the population, and differences in marital behavior have an impact on family organizations and fertility among ethnic groups. These differences may shape the age at first marriage, age at first birth, and so on, that will have subsequent effects on the family organization among these ethnic groups. This work attempts to analyze the differences in attitudes toward marital marital myths between ethnic Kazakhs and Slavics. The sociological research has revealed some significant differences in the myths existing about marriage between these ethnic groups. These differences, largely due to socio-cultural characteristics. Keywords: marriage, marital behavior, ethnic groups, differences, Kazakhstan

Research on stepfamily life in the 21st century reveals unexplored variables at every turn. This is important because around half of American adults report close step-relationships and the challenges and demographic and relational differences for different types of stepfamilies remains unexplored. The first of these studies explored data for 879 husbands and wives couples to explore how positivity, negativity, and sexual interest levels differ depending which of the couple, both partners, or neither had previous children. Wives reported higher levels of marital instability and positivity than husbands. Marital instability was linked with one’s own and one’s partners’ negativity, and inversely related to one’s own and one’s partners’ positivity and sexual interest. The marital instability of those with children was related with their partner’s negativity. The second study investigated how the marital stability of different stepfamily configurations is related to difficulties associated with the social and family dimension, the role of the spouse, the role of a parent, and the role of a stepparent. Wives’ scores of marital instability and difficulties being a parent and stepparent were higher than husbands’ across remarriage types. Stepmothers reported the highest levels of parenting and stepparenting strain, especially stepmothers without children of their own. This implies stepfamily challenges can impact family-related stress and marital instability, with the most profound effects found for stepmothers with no biological children of their own. We found that parents with children seem to be sensitive to negativity and sexual interest from their partners as a measure of relationship functioning. Stepmothers experienced higher levels of marital instability and difficulties associated with being a parent and a stepparent and this is especially true for stepmothers who did not have children of their own. These findings suggest couples may benefit from strategies that decrease negativity, increase positivity and sexual interest, and help manage the stresses associated with being a parent and stepparent, especially for stepmothers

Marital distress has been shown to negatively affect child outcomes. John Gottman has claimed that he has developed a concept that can buffer children from the negative effects of marital distress. The concept is emotion coachin g (EC), which teaches children about emotions. emotion regulation. and effective problem-solving. Children who are emotion coached have better out comes regardless of level of marital di stress. Gottman also claims that emotion coaching parents report higher marital satisfaction and tend to score higher in positive conflict resolution styles and lower in negative conflict resolution styles. This study set out to test Gottman's concepts of EC and emotion dismissing (ED) and their relationships with marital satisfaction and marital conflict. In addition, this study explored the relationships between marital conflict and marital satisfaction. Lastly, this study set out to use a se lf- report instrument to measure EC and ED, the Maternal Emotional Style Questionnaire (MESQ: Legace-Seguin, 200 I). Unfortunately, the MESQ in this study d id not have adequate reliability to answer the questions of how EC and ED were related to marital satisfaction and marital conflict. However, results were reported for relationships between marital conflict, marital satisfaction. and demographic variables. Results suggest that when one uses one negative way o f resolving conflict, one is likely to use other negative strategies. Also, when one uses the positive way of resolving conflict, negative strategies are less likely to be used. Resu lts showed that frequency/severity of conflicts were related to the perceived seriousness of arguments and reports of conflicts being resolved. Also. number of times conflicts were resolved was related to decreased perceived seriousness of argument topics. Marital satisfaction was related to higher scores on· positive conflict strategies and conflict efficacy and lower scores of frequency/severity of conflicts and negative conflict strategies. Discussion includes implications for further research and family therapy.