Fluctuation in Relationship Quality Over Time and Individual Well-Being: Main, Mediated, and Moderated Effects

Relationship risk factors for intimate partner violence among sexual and gender minorities: A multilevel analysis

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is alarmingly prevalent among sexual and gender minority youth assigned female at birth (SGM-AFAB), making it important to identify risk factors that can be targeted in prevention efforts for this population. Although several relationship-level risk factors for IPV have been identified in different-sex couples, research on SGM-AFAB is sparse and predominantly cross-sectional. The present study used seven waves of data from a longitudinal cohort study of SGM-AFAB youth (n = 463) to explore relationship factors (relationship quality, destructive conflict, and self- and partner-jealousy) as risk factors for perpetration and victimization of three types of IPV (physical, psychological, and coercive control). At each wave, participants reported on relationship factors and IPV for up to three romantic partners in the past 6 months. Multilevel models tested for associations between the relationship factors and IPV at three levels: between-persons, within-persons across time (wave), and within-persons across relationships. Relationship quality was associated with IPV mostly at the between-persons and within-persons (wave) levels. Couple conflict was associated with all IPV outcomes at all levels. Partner jealousy was more consistently associated with IPV victimization; participant jealousy was more consistently linked with IPV perpetration. These novel findings suggest that, within SGM individuals, IPV may be influenced by relationship quality, destructive conflict, and jealousy as they fluctuate within individuals from relationship to relationship and within individuals over time. As such, these relationship factors represent promising potential targets for interventions to reduce IPV among SGM-AFAB youth.

Does income moderate basic relationship processes?

Objective

This study explores whether household income moderates the predictive association from adaptive processes (positive and negative interactions and commitment), enduring vulnerabilities (psychological distress), and stressors (financial strain) to future relationship satisfaction?

Background

Theory and research have long conceptualized socioeconomic status as a predictor of couple relations, but recent work questions whether socioeconomic status may moderate basic couple relationship processes.

Method

This study used data from a U.S. national sample of 927 adults aged 18-34 years in a cohabiting (marital or nonmarital) different-sex partnership (66% female; 22% non-White; 47% earned a high school diploma or GED as their highest education credential) surveyed five times at 4-to 6-month intervals. A series of latent curve models with structured residuals were used to examine between- and within-person associations.

Results

Robust between-persons associations emerged consistent with prior literature (e.g., those with more positive and less negative interactions, higher commitment, lower psychological distress, and less financial strain reported higher relationship satisfaction). One robust longitudinal association emerged at the within-person level: higher than typical negative interactions predicted intraindividual decreases in future relationship satisfaction. Within-person associations were more evident in the cross-section: at times when positive interactions and commitment were higher than one's own average and negative interactions and psychological distress were lower than average, relationship satisfaction was also higher than average. Income did not moderate any links with future relationship satisfaction.

Conclusion

Results suggest that basic longitudinal processes in relationships operate consistently across income level.

State minimum wage increases delay marriage and reduce divorce among low-wage households

Objective

To estimate the effects of state-level changes in the minimum wage on marriage and divorce among low-wage earners.

Background

Proponents of raising the minimum wage highlight the potential benefits of increased earnings for low-income families, yet to date research on the effects of raising the minimum wage has focused almost exclusively on economic outcomes. No research has yet documented whether these changes actually affect marriage and divorce.

Method

Using the Current Population Survey and the American Community Survey, this project applied a quasi-experimental difference-in-difference method to exploit similarities between states that have, and have not, raised their minimum wage.

Results

Across data sources, among men and women earning low wages, a one-dollar increase in the state minimum wage predicts a 3%-6% decline in marriage entry and a 7%-15% decline in divorce one and 2 years later.

Conclusion

Both changes are likely to strengthen low-income families, and are substantially larger effects than those obtained by federal policies directly targeting interpersonal dynamics within low-income couples.

Implications

Government policies that reduce stress on couples and facilitate their access to resources may improve family outcomes, invisibly and without making additional demands on the time of couples who are already strained.

Women's relative earnings and depressive symptoms in dual-earner households in South Korea: Traditional gender role attitudes as moderators

This study investigated the association between relative earnings and depressive symptoms among 578 married women from dual-earning households. We also examined the moderating role of both spouses' traditional gender role attitudes. Women's relative earnings in their households did not directly predict their depressive symptoms. However, there was a significant three-way interaction effect of women's relative earnings and both spouses' traditional gender role attitudes on women's depressive symptoms. Particularly, women with considerably stronger-than-average traditional gender role attitudes reported more depressive symptoms when their relative earnings were greater and when their husbands showed strong traditional gender role attitudes. However, women holding even slightly weaker-than-average traditional gender role attitudes reported significantly fewer depressive symptoms as their relative earnings increased, even when their husbands showed strong traditional gender role attitudes. These results indicate that traditional wives with high relative earnings may feel threatened by the discrepancy between their values (traditional gender role attitudes) and behaviors (high relative earnings), especially when their husbands hold strong traditional gender role attitudes.

Variation in the μ-opioid receptor gene (OPRM1) and experiences of felt security in response to a romantic partner's quarrelsome behavior

Research suggests that endogenous opioids play a key role in the creation and maintenance of attachment bonds. Opioids acting at the μ-opioid receptor mediate reward and analgesia and are thus thought to underlie feelings of comfort and warmth experienced in the presence of close others. Disruption of μ-opioidergic activity increases separation distress in animals, suggesting that low opioid states may contribute to social pain. Accordingly, a functional μ-opioid receptor (OPRM1) polymorphism (C77G in primates, A118G in humans) affecting opioidergic signaling has been associated with separation distress and attachment behavior in nonhuman primates, and social pain sensitivity in humans. However, no research has examined the effects of this polymorphism on socioemotional experience, and specifically felt security, in daily interactions between romantic partners. Using an event-contingent recording method, members of 92 cohabiting romantic couples reported their felt security and quarrelsome behavior in daily interactions with each other for 20 days. Consistent with prior work, findings suggested that, relative to AA homozygotes, G allele carriers were more sensitive to their partners' self-reported quarrelsome behaviors (e.g., criticism), showing a greater decline in felt security when their partners reported higher quarrelsome behavior than usual. This is the first study to link variation in OPRM1 with felt security toward romantic partners in everyday social interactions. More generally, this research supports the theory that the attachment system incorporated evolutionarily primitive pain-regulating opioidergic pathways. We also discuss implications of this work for understanding of differential vulnerability to health risks posed by social stress.

Socioeconomic Status and Intimate Relationships

The ways that couples form and manage their intimate relationships at higher and lower levels of socioeconomic status (SES) have been diverging steadily over the past several decades. At higher SES levels, couples postpone marriage and childbirth to invest in education and careers, but they eventually marry at high rates and have relatively low risk for divorce. At lower SES levels, couples are more likely to cohabit and give birth prior to marriage and less likely to marry at all. This review examines how SES comes to be associated with the formation, development, and dissolution of intimate relationships. Overall, research has highlighted how a couple's socioeconomic context facilitates some choices and constrains others, resulting in different capacities for relationship maintenance and different adaptive mating strategies for more and less advantaged couples. A generalizable relationship science requires research that acknowledges these differences and one that recruits, describes, and attends to socioeconomic diversity across couples.

Can Interventions that Strengthen Couples' Relationships Confer Additional Benefits for their Health? A Randomized Controlled Trial with African American Couples

This study examined the effects of the Protecting Strong African American Families (ProSAAF) prevention program on adults' self-reported health outcomes 25 months after enrollment. ProSAAF is a couple-focused prevention program specifically designed to meet the needs of African-American families residing in the rural South. African-American couples (N = 346) with an early adolescent child participated in a randomized controlled trial of the program. Dyadic data analyses indicated significant direct effects on changes in couple functioning post-intervention as well as significant indirect effects of ProSAAF on changes in health through post-intervention improvements in couple functioning. These benefits were documented for men's and women's general health, depressive symptoms, and problematic sleep. There were no significant direct effects of ProSAAF participation on changes in health. Findings provide tempered optimism regarding the potential benefits of couple-focused programming for adults' physical, mental, and behavioral health.

Direct and indirect effects of a couple-focused preventive intervention on children's outcomes: A randomized controlled trial with African American families

OBJECTIVE

This study examined the effects of the Protecting Strong African American Families (ProSAAF) prevention program on children's outcomes more than 2 years after enrollment, including direct effects of the intervention and indirect effects through couple functioning and parent-child relations.

METHOD

Three hundred forty-six African American couples with an early adolescent child participated; all families lived in rural, low-income communities in the southern United States. Families were randomly assigned to ProSAAF or control conditions and completed four waves of data collection. Couples reported couple functioning at baseline (Wave 1) and at 9-month follow-up (Wave 2), and parent-child relations at 17-month follow-up (Wave 3). Children reported their conduct problems, affiliation with deviant peers, substance use, sexual onset, depressive symptoms, and self-control at 25-month follow-up (Wave 4).

RESULTS

Path analyses indicated significant indirect effects of ProSAAF on children's outcomes through improvements in couple functioning and better parent-child relations. There were no significant direct effects of the intervention on children's outcomes or significant indirect effects through couple functioning alone.

CONCLUSIONS

This couple-focused prevention program has positive indirect effects on several child outcomes through the intervening processes of promoting improvements in couple functioning and better parent-child relations. These findings provide cautious optimism regarding the possible benefits of couple-focused programming on participants' children while suggesting ways in which future couple-focused interventions could yield stronger effects on these youth. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Improving Couples' Relationship Functioning Leads to Improved Coparenting: A Randomized Controlled Trial With Rural African American Couples

Family-centered prevention programs for couples with children are being increasingly disseminated, with the hope that improving couples' romantic relationships will lead to other benefits for families. To date, however, it is unclear whether these interventions do in fact yield these benefits. The current study addressed this gap by examining whether postintervention improvements in couples' relationship functioning following family-centered prevention predicted longer-term change in coparenting, and whether postintervention improvements in coparenting predicted longer-term change in relationship functioning. We used four waves of data collected over 2 years from 346 rural African American couples with an early adolescent child who participated in a randomized controlled trial of the Protecting Strong African American Families (ProSAAF) program, an intervention designed to promote strong couple, coparenting, and parent-child relationships in two-parent African American families. Results indicated that ProSAAF had significant short-term positive effects on both romantic relationship functioning and coparenting and that these effects did not differ in magnitude. Over time, however, only romantic relationship functioning postintervention was positively associated with long-term changes in coparenting; coparenting postintervention was not associated with long-term changes in relationship functioning and this association was significantly weaker than the other pathway. These findings support a key premise underlying relationship enhancement programs for parents, indicating that improving couples' romantic relationship functioning can have longer-term benefits for the coparenting relationship as well. Further research examining long-term parent, child, and family outcomes following family-centered prevention for couples and the mechanisms of change underlying these outcomes is needed.

Steadfast Standards or Fluctuating Fancies? Stability and Change in People’s Mate Criteria Over 27 Months

Although research on mate preferences has been built on the assumption that the criteria people report at one point in time should predict their future partnering behavior, little is known about the temporal stability of people’s standards. Using survey data collected at four time points from 285 originally unmarried individuals, this study examined the rank-order, mean-level, individual-level and ipsative stability of people’s mate criteria over 27 months. Overall, reported standards exhibited moderate to high baseline stability, with rank-order and ipsative estimates comparable to those reported for personality traits. At the same time, mean- and individual-level analyses revealed small, but significant, increases in participants’ reported criteria over the study, as well as significant variability in individual trajectories. Consistent with theory, the stability of individuals’ standards was moderated by several contextual factors, including age, changes in perceived mate value, and significant relationship events.

Stress spillover, African Americans' couple and health outcomes, and the stress-buffering effect of family-centered prevention

This study investigated (a) the stress spillover pathways linking contextual stressors, changes in couple relationship functioning and depressive symptoms, and changes in individuals' physical health, and (b) the stress-buffering effect of participation in an efficacious, family centered prevention program designed to protect couples from the deleterious effects of stressors. The sample consisted of 346 rural African American couples (63% married) who participated in a randomized controlled trial of the Protecting Strong African American Families (ProSAAF) program. Participants were assessed at three time points across 17 months. Results examining stress spillover within the control group indicated that elevated current, but not prior, financial hardship was associated with decreased effective communication, relationship satisfaction, and relationship confidence as well as increased depressive symptoms; current levels of racial discrimination also predicted greater depressive symptoms. Relationship confidence and relationship satisfaction, but not communication or depressive symptoms, in turn predicted declines in self-reported physical health. Results examining stress-buffering effects suggested that participation in ProSAAF protected individuals' relationship confidence from declines associated with elevated financial hardship. In addition, the indirect effect linking financial hardship to declines in physical health through relationship confidence that emerged among participants in the control group was no longer evident for ProSAAF couples. Results highlight the effect of contextual stressors on African Americans' couple and individual well-being and the potential for the ProSAAF program to provide a constructed resilience resource, protecting couple's confidence in their relationship from the negative effects of financial hardship and, consequently, promoting physical health. (PsycINFO Database Record

The ebbs and flows of attachment: Within-person variation in attachment undermine secure individuals' relationship wellbeing across time

Although attachment security is relatively stable over time, individuals do experience significant within-person variation in their attachment security across time. No research to date, however, has assessed the relational consequences of within-person variation (fluctuations) in attachment security toward a specific attachment figure. Study 1 (N = 409) first examined whether attachment security was associated with individuals' expectations that their current intimate relationship would be stable and consistent over time (vs. inconsistent and unstable). Studies 2 and 3 extended this by examining the prevalence and consequences of actual within-person variation (fluctuations) in relationship-specific attachment security toward an intimate partner in 2 multiwave longitudinal studies that assessed individuals (Study 2, N = 324) and couples (Study 3, N = 171 dyads). The results indicate that secure individuals (those low in attachment anxiety or attachment avoidance) expect their current relationship to remain relatively stable and consistent over time (Study 1). However, Studies 2 and 3 demonstrated that most individuals do experience fluctuations in their relationship-specific attachment security. Moreover, greater fluctuations predict declines in relationship satisfaction (Studies 2 and 3) and increases in relationship distress (Study 3) over time, but primarily for secure individuals (those low in baseline attachment anxiety or attachment avoidance). This set of findings highlight the importance of examining within-person fluctuations in attachment security, which are associated with declines in trajectories of relationship wellbeing, particularly for secure individuals who anticipate greater stability in their relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record

Household Income and Trajectories of Marital Satisfaction in Early Marriage

Are the marriages of lower-income couples less satisfying than the marriages of more affluent couples? To address this question, we compared trajectories of marital satisfaction among couples with a wide range of household incomes. The marital satisfaction of 862 Black, White, and Latino newlywed spouses (N=431 couples) was assessed five times, each nine months apart, over the first four years of marriage. Lower-income couples did not have less satisfying marriages on average, nor did their satisfaction decline more steeply on average. However, they did experience (1) significantly greater fluctuations in marital satisfaction across assessments, and (2) significantly more variability between husbands and wives. If efforts to support the marriages of low-income couples are to address the unique characteristics of their marital development, these findings suggest that efforts to stabilize their marriages may be more effective than efforts to improve their satisfaction alone.

Cross-Cultural Comparison of Personality Traits, Attachment Security, and Satisfaction With Relationships as Predictors of Subjective Well-Being in India, Sweden, and the United States

Personality traits like Neuroticism and Extroversion, Satisfaction With Relationships, and Attachment Security are among the most important predictors of subjective well-being (SWB). However, the relative contribution of these predictors to SWB is seldom tested, and even more rarely tested cross-culturally. In this study, we replicate and extend Galinha, Oishi, Pereira, Wirtz, and Esteves, aiming to identify the strongest predictors of SWB, and in what way that contribution is universal or culture-specific, across such collectivist-individualist countries as India, Sweden, and the United States ( N = 1,622). Structural equation modeling showed that Satisfaction With Relationships is a stronger predictor of SWB in India, while Neuroticism is a stronger predictor of SWB in Sweden and the United States, results consistent with prior Portuguese and Mozambican samples. These findings suggest that Satisfaction With Relationships is probably a stronger predictor of SWB in more collectivistic and less developed countries, while low Neuroticism is a stronger predictor of SWB in more individualistic and highly developed countries. Across all samples, Attachment Security and Extroversion showed very weak or nonsignificant effects on SWB above the contribution of Neuroticism and Satisfaction With Relationships, consistent with prior results. Neuroticism significantly mediated the relationship between Attachment Security, SWB, and Satisfaction With Relationships.

Gender, Emotion Work, and Relationship Quality: A Daily Diary Study

We use the gender relations perspective from feminist theorizing to investigate how gender and daily emotion work predict daily relationship quality in 74 couples (148 individuals in dating, cohabiting, or married relationships) primarily from the southwest U.S. Emotion work is characterized by activities that enhance others' emotional well-being. We examined emotion work two ways: trait (individuals' average levels) and state (individuals' daily fluctuations). We examined actor and partner effects of emotion work and tested for gender differences. As outcome variables, we included six types of daily relationship quality: love, commitment, satisfaction, closeness, ambivalence, and conflict. This approach allowed us to predict three aspects of relationship quality: average levels, daily fluctuations, and volatility (overall daily variability across a week). Three patterns emerged. First, emotion work predicted relationship quality in this diverse set of couples. Second, gender differences were minimal for fixed effects: Trait and state emotion work predicted higher average scores on, and positive daily increases in, individuals' own positive relationship quality and lower average ambivalence. Third, gender differences were more robust for volatility: For partner effects, having a partner who reported higher average emotion work predicted lower volatility in love, satisfaction, and closeness for women versus greater volatility in love and commitment for men. Neither gender nor emotion work predicted average levels, daily fluctuations, or volatility in conflict. We discuss implications and future directions pertaining to the unique role of gender in understanding the associations between daily emotion work and volatility in daily relationship quality for relational partners.