Creating resilient marriage relationships: Self-pruning and the mediation role sacrifice with satisfaction

Relationship between Chinese middle-aged and old couples' Confucian coping thinking and marital quality

Objective

Drawing on the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM), the present study investigated the relationship between Chinese middle-aged and old couples' Confucian coping thinking and their marital quality in the hope to provide a theoretical basis for ameliorating marital quality.

Methods

With 744 middle-aged and old couples as participants, the Confucian Coping Questionnaire (CCQ) and the Quality of Marriage Index (QMI) were employed to probe the relationship between responsibility thinking (RT), pro-setback thinking (PT), fate thinking (FT), and marital quality.

Results

Husbands' and wives' scores in responsibility thinking and pro-setback thinking had significantly positive correlations with their own and their spouses' scores in marital quality, respectively, and husbands' and wives' scores in fate thinking had significantly negative correlations with their own and their spouses' marital quality, respectively. Husbands' responsibility thinking, pro-setback thinking, and fate thinking had a significant actor effect. Husbands' responsibility thinking and fate thinking had a significant partner effect. Wives' responsibility thinking, pro-setback thinking, and fate thinking had a significant actor effect. Wives' responsibility thinking and pro-setback thinking had a significant partner effect.

Conclusion

From the perspective of dyadic relationships, the present study found that responsibility thinking and pro-setback thinking could positively predict marital quality, while pro-setback thinking could negatively predict marital quality.

Understanding relational resilience of married adults in quarantine days

Quarantine and isolation caused by COVID-19 pandemic revealed a new stress condition in marriage relationship. This study aimed to investigate, under quarantine and isolation days, how relational resilience in marriage is explained with their psychological distress, and mediation roles of negative and positive dyadic coping in the marriage relationship between psychological distress and relational resilience. Data of the research study was obtained via an online form two months after the announcement of the pandemic in Turkey. The participants were 386 married people (49.7% were men, 50.3% women) who ranged in age from 23 to 65 years (M = 37.35, SD = 10.10). Participants were given Personal Information Form, The Relational Resilience Scale, The Dyadic Coping Inventory, Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, and Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale. Results showed that negative and positive coping have mediating influence on psychological stress of married individuals and their relational resilience during quarantine. It is seen that especially in quarantine days, positive coping strategies of married individuals, in coping with these conditions, is an important factor increasing relational resilience.