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This study evaluated associations between dating partners' risky family backgrounds in childhood and current romantic relationship functioning. One hundred young adult dating couples ( N = 200) self-reported childhood risky family environments (e.g., conflict, nonnurturing behavior, neglect) and current relationship satisfaction. Partners also engaged in laboratory-based conflict, which was subsequently coded for positive and negative interaction qualities. Results revealed a positive linkage between males' and females' risky family backgrounds. Actor–Partner Interdependence Modeling, which accommodated dyadic data and controlled for neuroticism levels, indicated that males' riskier family backgrounds were associated with their female partners' greater observed negative interaction qualities (e.g., conflict) and with their partners' lower observed positive interaction (e.g., support, communication skills). Experiencing interparental divorce during childhood moderated the results, with riskier family backgrounds holding more negative implications for subsequent young adult romantic relationships when the parents remained together during childhood compared to when the parents divorced.

ObjectiveDrawing from the vulnerability–stress–adaptation model, we explored sexual distress as a lack of adaptive processes within marriage by assessing whether sociodemographic variables associated with stress moderated the association between sexual distress and marital quality.BackgroundSexual intimacy and marital quality are strongly linked, but it remains unclear what role sexual distress (distinct from low sexual satisfaction) plays in marital quality and whether this role differs across sociodemographic characteristics (race, socioeconomic status, premarital childbearing).MethodData are from in‐person and telephone interviews of 199 African American and 174 European American couples across their first 4 years of marriage. Dyadic multilevel modeling was used to analyze longitudinal associations between sexual distress and marital quality and to test whether these associations were moderated by race, socioeconomic status, and premarital childbearing, while controlling for joyful sex and pregnancy.ResultsSexual distress and marital quality were bidirectionally linked. Sexual distress was a stronger predictor of marital quality for African American husbands compared with European American husbands. Socioeconomic status and premarital childbearing were not statistically significant moderators.ConclusionHigh sexual distress is distinct from low sexual satisfaction and may indicate insufficient adaptive processes for partners experiencing chronic stress. Social context and factors beyond marital processes may influence the role sexual intimacy plays in marital quality.ImplicationsFindings contribute to practitioners' understanding of how sexual distress relates to marital quality in diverse newlywed couples.

AbstractThe present study extended laboratory‐based findings of demand‐withdraw communication into marital conflict in the home and further explored its linkages with spousal depression. U.S. couples (N = 116) provided diary reports of marital conflict and rated depressive symptoms. Hierarchical linear modeling results indicated that husband demand‐wife withdraw and wife demand‐husband withdraw occurred in the home at equal frequency, and both were more likely to occur when discussing topics that concerned the marital relationship. For both patterns, conflict initiator was positively linked to the demander role. Accounting for marital satisfaction, both demand‐withdraw patterns predicted negative emotions and tactics during marital interactions and lower levels of conflict resolution. Spousal depression was linked to increased likelihood of husband demand‐wife withdraw.

This study examined parents' past marital aggression as a (1) predictor of everyday marital conflict expressions, and (2) moderator of children's responses to marital conflict. In a laboratory setting, children watched their parents discuss an everyday topic of disagreement and then reported their own emotional and behavioral reactions, and rated their parents' conflict resolution. Controlling for current marital aggression, couples with higher levels of past marital aggression used less constructive and more destructive conflict tactics, and displayed less positive and more negative emotions. Children's responses to marital conflict were moderated by parents' past marital aggression: Children whose parents had been more maritally aggressive in the past were more sensitive to parents' use of constructive conflict tactics and positive emotions. Thus, controlling for current marital aggression, past interparental aggression had implications for both parents' everyday interparental conflict and children's responding to everyday marital conflict.

Based on a sample of parents (N = 148) of 4‐ to 7‐year‐olds (N = 74, M = 5.76 years), this study adapted a widely used, self‐report measure of couples' dyadic conflict behavior to include reports of couples' conflict behavior in the child's presence (triadic conflict) to examine their additive and interactive associations with child maladjustment. Significant interaction effects suggested that higher levels of triadic psychologically aggressive conflict were associated with higher levels of child externalizing (b = .134, p = .024) and internalizing (b = .189, p < .001) problems, but only if levels of dyadic psychological aggression were average or higher. When levels of couples' dyadic psychological aggression were low, levels of child presence did not relate to child behavior. Predictors of triadic psychological aggression included parental involvement (b = .266, p = .003), parent–child functioning (b = −.288, p = .042), and marital adjustment (b = −.346, p < .001).

Guided by a family stress perspective, we examined the hypothesis that discussing money would be associated with the handling of marital conflict in the home. Analyses were based on dyadic hierarchical linear modeling of 100 husbands' and 100 wives' diary reports of 748 conflict instances. Contrary to findings from previous laboratory‐based surveys, spouses did not rate money as the most frequent source of marital conflict in the home. However, compared to nonmoney issues, marital conflicts about money were more pervasive, problematic, and recurrent, and remained unresolved, despite including more attempts at problem solving. Implications for professionals who assist couples in managing their relationships and family finances are discussed.