Conflict and love: predicting newlywed outcomes from two observational contexts
Date
2010
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Research on marital stability and quality has primarily focused on couples in conflict to uncover processes that are associated with concurrent and longitudinal outcomes. Although this work has been prolific in revealing particular emotions or behavioral sequences that are associated with later marital distress (e.g., demand/withdraw patterns), it largely has neglected to take positive contexts into consideration. The present longitudinal study attempts to address this gap in the literature by directly comparing newlywed behaviors from a conflict-resolution interaction with those from a love-paradigm interaction to predict relationship satisfaction and steps taken toward divorce approximately 15 months later. Results show that partner emotions elicited in positive (i.e., love) and negative (i.e., conflict) contexts both provide unique predictors of relationship quality and stability for both husbands and wives. Using a linear growth model, we also found that the temporal course of positive emotion during the love context, but not the conflict context, was predictive of later relationship satisfaction. Implications for future marital research are discussed.