Infertility and Adjustment in Women: The Effects of Attachment Style and Social Support

The moderating effects of two psychological resources—attachment style and perceived social support—on adjustment were studied in 109 infertile women, examining the effects of duration of infertility and of primary (the woman has no child of her own) versus secondary (the woman already has a child of her own) infertility. Subjects were administered questionnaires measuring marital adjustment, psychological distress, and well-being. A model viewing attachment style and social support as moderators between stress psychological well-being was explored. The results showed that among the objective characteristics, only duration of infertility had any impact on the psychological measures. Furthermore, the psychological resources were highly associated with the adjustment scores in general. A hierarchical regression analysis showed that attachment style and social support both were related to marital quality and to psychological well-being and that these two resources function as stress moderators. It was concluded that attachment style and social support are important resources for individuals in times of stress, as exemplified in the infertility situation.     

Discovery of a Partner Affair and Major Depressive Episode in a Probability Sample of Married or Cohabiting Adults

Prior research has found that humiliating marital events are associated with depression. Building on this research, the current study investigated the association between one specific humiliating marital event—discovering that one's partner had an affair—and past‐year major depressive episode (MDE) in a probability sample of married or cohabiting men and women who were at high risk for depression based on the criterion that they scored below the midpoint on a measure of marital satisfaction (N = 227). Results indicate that (i) women were more likely than men to report discovering their partner had an affair in the prior 12 months; (ii) discovering a partner affair was associated with a higher prevalence of past‐year MDE and a lower level of marital adjustment; and (iii) the association between discovering a partner affair and MDE remained statistically significant when holding constant demographic variables and marital adjustment. These results support continued investigation into the impact that finding out about an affair has on the mental health of the person discovering a partner affair.     

An Examination of Race Differences in Patients' Psychological Adjustment to Cancer

Although African Americans are at increased risk of cancer morbidity and mortality, very little is known about their psychological adjustment. African American males may be at especially high psychological risk, considering their disproportionately higher cancer mortality. Subjects were 42 African American and 56 White adults similar in age, cancer stage, marital status, and socioeconomic status. Analyses revealed no significant race or gender effects on global indices of psychological adjustment, depression, or anxiety. However, African Americans were more likely than Whites (a) to use avoidant coping strategies in dealing with the exigencies of their illness, (b) to report more cancer-related disruption in family relations, and (c) to identify fewer individuals in their social support network. No significant race differences were found on a measure of health care satisfaction. These findings highlight the need to provide a more comprehensive examination of individual, family, and socioecological variables and their relationship to psychological adaptation among minorities with cancer.     

Conflict Buffers and Marital Satisfaction: On the Effects of Different Forms of Social Support

This paper deals with the deterioration in the subjective quality of life of women as a result of marital conflict. Whereas primary and secondary prevention are generally targeted at maintaining or increasing the current level of marital happiness this paper focuses on the possibilities for buffering the negative impact of conflict on women’s quality of life. In particular, this paper is interested in the conflict buffering effects of various forms of social support such as home visiting by professional social workers or informal contacts with peers. In order to assess and compare the effectiveness of these forms of tertiary prevention, data from interviews with young mothers in the city of Zurich (Switzerland) will be reanalyzed. The data confirm the phenomenon of stress buffering from social support and reveal variation with regard to the effectiveness of different stress buffers. Female peer support e.g. seems to be at least as successful as home visiting by professional nurses and social workers.     

The relationship of sexual adjustment and related sexual behaviors and attitudes to marital adjustment

Abstract

This paper examines the extent of relationship between sexual adjustment and marital adjustment for 30 married couples followed for 3–6 months. Sexual adjustment was assessed by means of the LoPiccolo-Steger Sexual Interaction Inventory, and two other measures termed a Couple Interaction Scale (CI) and a Couple Compatibility Ratio (CCR). Marital adjustment was assessed by means of the Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Scale (L-W MAS) and a clinically-devised instrument based on the extent of support between the marital partners. The two marital adjustment instruments agreed closely. A high degree of association was obtained between most of the sexual adjustment measures and the two marital adjustment measures; using the most reliable of these measures, it is estimated that sexual adjustment contributed between 40 % and 55 % of the variance in marital adjustment. This association was not due to a specific stage of. the human sexual response cycle of desire, excitement, orgasm and gratification. Intercorrelation of measures of each of these stages with the marital adjustment measures generally yielded significant relationships.     

Dual trajectories of maternal parenting stress and marital intimacy during toddlerhood

Parenting stress disrupts both parenting and child adjustment. Marital intimacy is often conceptualized as a source of support that may reduce parenting stress. We examined the association between mothers' trajectories of parenting stress and marital intimacy when their children were 15–36 month old. We also explored whether maternal depressive symptoms at 15 months accounted for individual differences concurrently or in the trajectories of parenting stress and marital intimacy. Mothers' marital intimacy was negatively associated with their concurrent levels of parenting stress and declines in parenting stress over time. Depressive symptoms were associated with 15‐month parenting stress and marital intimacy. Overall, intimacy within the marriage appears to be a resource that reduces mothers' parenting stress during the toddler years     

Marital role strain,illness intrusiveness,and their impact on marital and individual adjustment in end-stage renal disease

Abstract

A marital role theory approach was used to investigate individual psychosocial well-being and marital adjustment in 89 end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients and their spouses. Four different patient groups were selected according to a continuum of clinical milestones in the treatment of ESRD, including pre-dialysis (n=17), incenter dialysis (n=18), home dialysis (n=19), and posttransplant patients (n=17). A nephrology clinic control group (n=18) was also included. Standardized instruments were employed to investigate marital role strain (Marital Role Questionnaire, KDS-15), marital adjustment (Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Test), subjective well-being (Affect Balance Scale, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Inventory), and psychopathology (Symptom Checklist 90-R). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses provided strong and consistent support for the major hypotheses relating elevated marital role strain to compromised marital adjustment and individual well-being. Further analyses demonstrated that increased perceived intrusiveness of ESRD was significantly related to greater marital role strain, poorer marital adjustment, and decreased individual well-being. This is consistent with the idea that perceived intrusiveness may be an important mediator of marital role strain and of coping with chronic illness. “Objective” intrusiveness, defined in terms of patient group, was not significantly related to marital or individual well-being. These findings support a dyadic approach to the psychosocial study of chronic illness.     

Parenting stress and external stressors as predictors of maternal ratings of child adjustment

This study sought to disentangle the effects of different kinds of stress on maternal ratings of child externalizing and internalizing problems, social inhibition, and social competence, with a primary focus on parenting stress. The relations were explored in a sample consisting of mothers of 436 children (M_age = 7 years) in Sweden. Half the sample had had early clinical contacts during infancy due to child regulation problems, and the rest were mothers without known such early contacts. Demographic factors, family stressors, and parenting stress were examined in stress – adjustment models. Family stressors were clinical contact during infancy, current child and parent health problems, recent negative life events, and insufficient social support. Parenting stress as a mediator of the effect of other stressors on rated child adjustment was tested as was social support as a moderator of the effect of parenting stress on adjustment. The results showed that a higher parenting stress level was associated with maternal ratings of more externalizing and internalizing behaviors, more social inhibition, and lower social competence. Other family stressors and background variables were also found to be of importance, mainly for externalizing and internalizing problems and to some extent for social competence. Social inhibition had a unique relation to parenting stress only. Parenting stress mediated effects of other stressors in twelve models, whereas social support had no moderating effect on the link between parenting stress and child adjustment. Thus, parenting stress seems to be an important overarching construct. Clinical implications are proposed.     

Marital virtues and their relationship to individual functioning,communication, and relationship adjustment

Extant research has documented both individual well-being and couple communication as important predictors of marital adjustment. In the recent years, researchers have looked beyond problem-based predictors, shifting the focus from pathology and communication to include positive actions and ways of being. This study used Fowers’ [(2005) Virtue and psychology: Pursuing excellence in ordinary practices. Washington, DC: APA Press] framework of virtue ethics to test additional potentially important linkages. This framework posits that characteristics, such as compassion and generosity, which are foundational to relationship adjustment. This study examined the direct and indirect links among individual functioning, marital virtues, communication, and marital adjustment. Data were collected from a sample of 422 married and cohabitating individuals using a self-report survey. Individual well-being significantly and consistently predicted virtues, communication, and relationship functioning. Marital virtues and communication were found to mediate the relationship between individual well-being and relationship adjustment. In addition, communication was found to mediate the relationship between marital virtues and relationship adjustment. Findings provide support for the notion that character strengths – enacted as marital virtues – influence communication and relationship adjustment.     

Examining congruence between partners' perceived infertility-related stress and its relationship to marital adjustment and depression in infertile couples

Because studies examining the emotional impact of infertility-related stress generally focus on individuals, there has been little research examining how relationship and individual variables are linked. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of congruence (e.g., agreement) between partner's perceived infertility-related stress and its effects on depression and marital adjustment in infertile men and women. Couples referred for infertility treatments at a University-affiliated teaching hospital completed the Fertility Problem Inventory (FPI), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) 3 months prior to their first treatment cycle. Study findings show that men and women in couples who perceived equal levels of social infertility stress reported higher levels of marital adjustment when compared to men and women in couples who perceived the stress differently. In addition, women in couples who felt a similar need for parenthood reported significantly higher levels of marital satisfaction when compared to women in couples where the males reported a greater need for parenthood. While couple incongruence was unrelated to depression in males, incongruence over relationship concerns and the need for parenthood was related to female depression. These findings provide initial support for the theory that high levels of agreement between partners related to the stresses they experience help them successfully manage the impact of these stressful life events. Possibilities for future research examining the construct of couple congruence are discussed.     

Marital Status,Home Environments,and Family Strain: Complex Effects on Preschool Children's School Readiness Skills

The current study examined the complex associations among marital status, home environments, and family strain (i.e. income, maternal depressive symptoms, social support, and parenting stress), as they predict preschool children's pre‐academic and social skills at 36 and 54 months. Findings from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 897) showed that the home learning environment, which was significantly lower among single‐parent families, worked as a mediator to explain the relationship between single‐parent families and children's pre‐academic skills at 36 and 54 months. Additionally, parenting stress, which was significantly higher among single‐parent families, worked as a mediator to explain the relationship between single status and the home learning environment. Finally, moderation analyses showed that family income is important for improving the home social environment, and the home social environment is strongly associated with children's social skills in single‐parent families, but not in cohabiting families. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Relationship Between Personality and Marital Adjustment Among Distressed Married Couples Seen in Intensive Marital Therapy: An Actor-Partner Interdependence Model Analysis

In this study, the actor-partner interdependence model was utilized to investigate the impact that personality has on marital adjustment in a sample of 270 couples (N = 540) in marital distress that presented to an intensive outpatient marital therapy program. Sixteen Personality Factor Fifth Edition (16PF Fifth Edition) scores revealed significant personality differences between husbands and wives, as well as significant actor and partner effects, suggesting that certain personality traits of one partner predict his or her own, as well as his or her spouse’s, marital adjustment. Gender effects also were evident among the sample, suggesting that a number of personality correlates of marital adjustment tended to be different for the husbands and wives in this study.     

Differential hemodynamic effects during the provision of active and passive support in the laboratory

Objective: Recent research has pointed to the cardiovascular benefits of providing social support to others in times of stress; however, little is known about what factors influence such benefits.

Design and measures: In a between-groups design, we investigated the possible interaction between intimacy (friend vs. stranger) and support type (active vs. passive) in determining the cardiovascular responses of support providers. Eighty participants had their blood pressure and heart rate monitored while providing either active or passive social support to a friend or a stranger who completed a stress task.

Results: Although there was no interaction effect, a significant main effect showed that those who provided passive support showed larger decreases relative to those in the active support condition. There was no effect of intimacy. Further, these effects withstood adjustment for a number of potential confounds (e.g. sex and body mass index).

Conclusion: It appears that the greatest physiological benefit for social support providers may come from providing passive, rather than active support, regardless of whether the support receiver is a friend or a stranger.     

Trajectories of Adjustment to Couple Relationship Separation

To test a stress‐diathesis model of adjustment to separation, the current study describes the trajectories of different aspects of separation adjustment in people formerly married or cohabiting, and moderators of those trajectories. A convenience sample of 303 recently separated individuals (169 women; 134 men) completed assessments of their emotional attachment to the former partner, loneliness, psychological distress, and coparenting conflict at two time points 6 months apart. Multilevel modeling of the overlapping multicohort design was used to estimate the trajectories of these different aspects of adjustment as a function of time since separation, marital status, gender, presence of children from the relationship, who initiated separation, social support, and anxious attachment. Attachment to the former partner, loneliness, and psychological distress were initially high but improved markedly across the 2 years after separation, but coparenting conflict was high and stable. Adjustment problems were similar in men and women, and in those formerly married or cohabiting, except that reported coparenting conflict was higher in men than women. Low social support and high anxious attachment predicted persistent attachment to the former partner, loneliness, and psychological distress. Coparenting conflict is a common, chronic problem for many separated individuals, and individuals with certain psychological vulnerabilities also experience chronic personal distress.     

Predicting Marital Adjustment from Young Adults’ Initial Levels and Changes in Emotional Intimacy over Time: A 25-Year Longitudinal Study

Emotional intimacy has long been known to influence marital adjustment. However, little is known about whether emotional intimacy experienced and developed during early adulthood predicts marital adjustment at a later time. Using longitudinal data from a sample of recent university graduates (N = 144) at five data points over a period of 25 years, it was found that higher levels of earlier emotional intimacy with a closest other and change in emotional intimacy over the first 8 years predicted Wave 5 marital adjustment. On average, women reported greater emotional intimacy than men at Wave 1. Neither change in marital status nor gender moderated the associations between emotional intimacy intercept and slope with marital adjustment at Wave 5. These as well as cluster analytic findings are discussed in light of Erikson’s developmental theory and applied to the idea that emotional intimacy may be a skill that can be developed and potentially modified.     

Traumatization,Marital Adjustment,and Parenting among Veterans and Their Spouses: A Longitudinal Study of Reciprocal Relations

Despite considerable research on secondary traumatization, the ramifications of veterans’ and their wives’ posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) for the family system remain largely uninvestigated. Beginning to fill this gap, the current study aims to investigate the reciprocal relations between both spouses’ PTSS and marital adjustment, and the implications these bear for their parental functioning. Two hundred and twenty‐five Israeli veterans (mean age = 58.62, SD = 7.6) from the 1973 Yom Kippur War and their wives (mean age = 58.28, SD = 5.79) were examined at two points in time: 30 (T1) and 35–37 years after the war (T2). Analysis included longitudinal actor–partner interdependence modeling and sequential mediation analyses. The results show that higher PTSS among the wives at T1 predicted higher PTSS among husbands at T2, and vice versa, and predicted their husbands’ marital adjustment at T2. Moreover, wives’ PTSS at T1 had a significant effect on parental overinvolvement of both parents at T2, but neither their PTSS nor their husbands’ PTSS had an impact on positive parenting. In the intrapersonal domain, better marital adjustment at T1 predicted positive parenting among both spouses in subsequent measurement. Interpersonally, wives’ lower marital adjustment at T1 predicted husbands’ higher parental functioning, but not vice versa. Furthermore, marital adjustment mediated the association between PTSS and positive parenting for both spouses. The results emphasize the detrimental ramifications of war trauma on the interpersonal domains in veterans’ families. Hence, both marital and parental consequences of trauma should be considered in clinical family interventions.     

Identity Problems,Ego Strengths,Perceived Stress,and Adjustment During Contextual Changes at University

We present a 2-year time-lag study in which Canadian and Spanish students’ perceptions of stress, identity problems, and psychosocial maturity (ego strengths) were examined in relation to academic, social, and personal-emotional adjustment to university under different conditions of macro-environmental disruption (i.e., academic and economic) and no disruption (stability). In the academic disturbance context, students reported increased stress and the economic disruption situation was associated with greater identity problems. The expected relationships were found among the variables in the study. Students reported greater social maladjustment at university related to economic disruption in comparison with the academic and no disruption contexts. Ego strengths moderated the relationship between perceived stress with academic and social adjustment, respectively. In other words, delayed psychosocial development in conjunction with high perceived stress was associated with deficient academic and social functioning at university. The findings are considered in terms of psychosocial development and the role of proximal and distal perception of stressors in the functional well-being of university students.     

Prospective associations between marital adjustment and life satisfaction

Actor and partner effects for the 2‐year longitudinal associations between marital adjustment and life satisfaction were evaluated in a population‐based sample of middle‐aged and older adults (N = 1,385 couples). Results showed that (a) higher marital adjustment at baseline predicted higher life satisfaction at follow‐up, (b) higher life satisfaction at baseline predicted higher marital adjustment at follow‐up, (c) marital adjustment more strongly predicted life satisfaction than life satisfaction predicted marital adjustment for women, and (d) higher partner marital adjustment at baseline predicted higher life satisfaction at follow‐up. Results suggest that marital adjustment and life satisfaction influence one another in a bidirectional fashion and that the direction is predominantly from marital adjustment to life satisfaction in women.     

Preterm behavior,maternal adjustment,and competencies in the newborn period: What influence do they have at 12 months postnatal age?

This article examines whether preterm newborns' behavior and their mother's adjustment to the premature birth and infant hospitalization have an influence on subsequent infant development and behavior, maternal adjustment, and mother–infant relationship. The behavioral competencies of 42 well, singleton preterm infants (mean gestational age=31 weeks) were assessed, as were their mothers' adjustment (depression and coping) and competencies (knowledge of child development). At 12 months of postnatal age, child competencies (development and behavior) were assessed, together with maternal adjustment (parenting stress and depression). Mother–infant interaction also was observed. Regression analyses indicated that in the newborn period, maternal positive reappraisal and a planful coping style, more knowledge of child development, and previous experience with baby‐sitting were associated with better infant development (p=.002), maternal adjustment (p=.012), and mother–child relationship (p=.002) at 12 months. Newborn infant muscle‐tone maturity was predictive of better motor quality at 12 months (p=.011), and being a firstborn infant who was more sleepy and drowsy was associated with subsequent higher maternal parenting stress (p=.007). Social and educational support groups combined with an approach that assists mothers to develop problem‐solving coping styles may have a beneficial influence on infant development.     

Short- and long-term effects of marital disruption on children

The short- and long-term (5 years later) effects of parental marital disruption on the psychological adjustment of children were examined. A representative community sample of urban families (N = 1,034) in which 25-50% had experienced marital disruption constituted the sample. The effect of the presence and type of father figure in the home on children's adjustment, controlling for ethnic group and social class, was evaluated with respect to measures of psychological symptomatology (based on mother's report). Significant effects of the father figure variable on the dimensions measuring Noncompulsivity and Delinquency were found at both time periods. Children with natural fathers showed the least pathology on the Delinquency factor and those with surrogate fathers demonstrated the most disordered behavior on the Noncompulsivity factor. These findings complement previous research showing stability of antisocial behavior over time. Implications for preventive interventions and future research are discussed.