The areas of change questionnaire: A cross-cultural comparison of israeli and american distressed and nondistressed couples

Abstract

This study examines Israeli couples' presenting complaints about their relationship, their perceptions of one another's complaints and perceptual accuracy between actual and perceived complaints, using the Areas of Change Questionnaire (ACQ). Samples were obtained of both distressed and nondistressed couples. Each sample met stringent criteria for categorization as distressed and nondistressed. Normative data for both samples are examined and areas of similarities and differences are discussed. The instrument is found to discriminate distressed and nondistressed Israeli couples. Results are compared with a previous study of American distressed and nondistressed couples. The American finding that women desire more change in marriage is not replicated in the Israeli sample, nor the American finding that distress and stage in the life cycle are related. However, there is an indication in both samples that men, compared to women, perceive more requests for change. Men in both cultures also feel more change is asked of them than they themselves ask in return.     

Self-report schedules for use in assessing the marital adjustment of abusive and nonabusive parents

Abstract

Abusive parents and nonabusive parents were compared on three self-report behavioral marital questionnaires. The questionnaires—the Marital Status Inventory, the Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Test, and the Areas of Change Questionnaire—have been used in pre-post evaluations of treatment and in the discrimination of distressed from nondistressed marriages. The results indicated that both groups reported having only mildly distressed marital relationships. The report presents initial normative data on the questionnaires for abusive parents and nonabusive parents who were seeking help with child management problems.     

Spouse disclosure patterns in distressed and nondistressed couples

Abstract

To determine whether spouses in nondistressed marriages show greater equity and reciprocity of exchange and a greater degree of congruence than spouses experiencing marital distress, interactive patterns of self-disclosing behavior were examined using the Self-Disclosure Coding System. Clinical wives were found to disclose greater percentages of self-references and at a higher rate than their husbands, and discriminant function analysis correctly discriminated 80% of these spouses. In contrast, the disclosure patterns of nonclinical partners could not be distinguished, indicating greater equity of exchange. Examination of within-couple reciprocity patterns revealed highly similar topographical patterns of disclosure among the nondistressed couples but not among the distressed partners. Finally, the association between content intimacy and affective manner of presentation was stronger for the nondistressed husbands (r = .81) and wives (r = .97) than for the distressed husbands (r = .10) and wives (r = .36), indicating greater clarity of self-revelations among nondistressed couples. These findings are discussed within the context of equity, communication, and behavioral exchange views of marital adjustment.     

Marital interaction and depression

In this article, patterns of marital interaction as a function of depression and marital satisfaction are examined. The purpose of the study was to separate dysfunctional marital interaction patterns that were unique to depression from those that were associated with marital distress. The presence or absence of a depressed wife was crossed with level of marital satisfaction (distressed or nondistressed) to produce four groups of subject couples. Couples in which the wife was depressed exhibited more depressive behavior than did nondepressed couples, but only during discussion of a high conflict (as opposed to neutral) topic. Sex X Depression Level X Marital Satisfaction interactions were found for aggressive behavior: Depressed women in nondistressed relationships exhibited behavior that was characteristic of maritally distressed couples (high rates of aggression). In contrast, the husbands of these women exhibited behavior that one would expect in happily married couples (low rates of aggression). We failed to replicate previous findings that depressive behavior served a coercive function, although distressed couples, regardless of depression status, exhibited all the usual signs of negative dysfunctional interaction. In general, the findings suggested that marital distress rather than depression per se may be responsible for the dysfunctional interaction patterns frequently observed in depressed couples.     

Verbal Aggression in Marriages A Comparison of Violent,Distressed but Nonviolent,and Nondistressed Couples

This study examines verbal aggression in the disputes of abusive couples. Verbal aggression is defined as both a predispositional trait and a relational pattern, so it is viewed within a system theory framework. Specifically, the study considers the relationship between verbal aggression and marital distress, the level of agreement between couples in reporting their verbally aggressive behavior, and the level and type of reciprocity in their verbal aggression. A sample of 82 couples representing violent, nonviolent distressed, and nondistressed relationships completed self-report instruments on verbal aggression and argumentativeness for themselves and their spouses and marital satisfactionfor themselves. Results show that abusive couples experience less marital satisfaction, less accurately recall each other's behavior, and have significant reciprocity in their verbal aggression compared to nonviolent distressed and nondistressed couples.     

Couples in Therapy: Actor-Partner Analyses of the Relationships Between Adult Romantic Attachment and Marital Satisfaction

This study was the first to investigate the relationship between adult romantic attachment and marital satisfaction in a clinical sample of 172 distressed couples seeking therapy. Fifty-six therapy-seeking nondistressed couples were also assessed for comparison. Analyses of variance showed that attachment avoidance was a distinctive characteristic of distressed couples. Actor-partner analyses revealed that attachment avoidance (for men and women) and attachment anxiety (for women only) were predictive of marital dissatisfaction for distressed couples. Gender-stereotype discordant partner effects were also found. Results suggest that attachment orientations (especially avoidance) are relevant predictors of marital dissatisfaction in distressed couples seeking therapy, and that couple therapists can gain important information by assessing partners’ attachment orientations.     

Temporal Linkages Between Wives' Pursuit and Husbands' Withdrawal During Marital Conflict

This study examined the association between wives' pursuit and husbands' withdrawal during marital conflict discussions, and the affects associated with these behaviors. Ten distressed and 10 nondistressed couples completed a videotaped interaction in which the wives requested changes in husbands' behaviors. Results showed sequential dependencies between wives' pursuit and husbands' withdrawal, but distressed couples, as compared to nondistressed couples, did not engage in stronger pursuit/withdrawal patterns. Distressed husbands showed the highest proportions of anxious affects. The findings are discussed with reference to the affective context of the pursuit/withdrawal pattern.     

Depression, Marital Satisfaction and Communication in Couples: Investigating Gender Differences

The correlation between depression and dysfunctional marital interaction is well documented, but only a few studies have examined gender-related differences in marital interaction patterns of couples with a depressed partner. In this paper we examined differences in observed marital communication in a sample of 62 Swiss couples presenting for treatment of depression. There were 16 maritally distressed couples with a depressed wife, 21 maritally nondistressed couples with a depressed wife, 18 maritally distressed couples with a depressed husband, and 7 maritally nondistressed couples with a depressed husband. Marital interaction behavior was found to depend on gender, depression, marital distress, as well as gender of the depressed partner. Our results suggest the need for a gender-sensitive model of the link between marital interaction and depression.     

"You" and "I" need to talk about "us": Linguistic patterns in marital interactions

Links between pronoun use, relationship satisfaction, and observed behavior were examined during 2 problem-solving interactions in which 134 distressed and 48 nondistressed couples participated. Results supported hypotheses that distressed and nondistressed couples would use pronouns at significantly different rates, and that rates would also differ for partners depending on whose topic was being discussed. Actor–partner interdependence models (APIMs; D. A. Kenny, 1996 ) revealed actor and partner effects of pronoun use on satisfaction and observed positivity and negativity. Interestingly, I-focus pronouns were found to be linked with satisfaction in distressed partners and dis satisfaction in nondistressed partners. The pattern of findings was otherwise largely consistent across topics and levels of distress. These findings have implications for both future research and clinical interventions.     

Exploration of a Marital Typology: Implications for Marital Functioning in a Multi-Ethnic Sample

Marital conflict is associated with multiple negative outcomes for couples, including marital dissatisfaction and divorce. Little research, however, has examined conflict in Hispanic/Latino couples or its association with marital satisfaction, which creates an unfortunate knowledge gap for clinicians working with diverse client groups. The present study sought to examine both marital conflict and satisfaction using a sample of 231 European American (EA; n = 108) and Hispanic/Latino (H/L; n = 123) couples. Through observational coding, couples were placed into four groups based on their type of conflict management strategies: Harmonious, Withdrawn, Conflictual-Expressive, or Conflictual-Hostile. For both ethnic groups, couples in the Harmonious group were nondistressed and couples in the Conflictual-Hostile group were in the distressed range of marital satisfaction. Cross-ethnic differences emerged. EA couples experienced distress when both hostile (Conflictual-Hostile) and nonhostile conflict (Conflictual-Expressive) communication types were observed, while only hostile conflict was associated with distress for the H/L group. H/L couples reported similar levels of satisfaction in both the Harmonious and Conflictual-Expressive groups. H/L couples also fell within the distressed range when withdrawn communication patterns were observed; however, this was not the case for EA couples. These differences suggest that both types of conflict are associated with marital distress for EA couples, whereas hostile conflict and withdrawn behavior appear to be more negatively associated with marital satisfaction in H/L couples. Results provide support for the use of an observational coding system with H/L and EA couples and also suggest the importance of understanding how differences in expressions of conflict across ethnicities may relate to marital satisfaction.     

Marital conflict: Correlates, structure, and context

Marital conflict has deleterious effects on mental, physical, and family health, and three decades of research have yielded a detailed picture of the behaviors that differentiate distressed from nondistressed couples. Review of this work shows that the singular emphasis on conflict in generating marital outcomes has yielded an incomplete picture of its role in marriage. Recently, researchers have tried to paint a more textured picture of marital conflict by studying spouses' backgrounds and characteristics, investigating conflict in the contexts of support giving and affectional expression, and considering the ecological niche of couples in their broader environment.     

Marital event appraisals and frequencies: A comparison of distressed and nondistressed husbands

Abstract

Frequencies of marital events have been shown to vary according to whether a marriage is classified as distressed or nondistressed, but it is not known if these two groups of subjects appraise or view marital events in the same ways. This study examined husbands' appraisals of five marital events which were recorded daily for 90 consecutive days. Subjects appraised events according to four qualities: desirability, changingness, meaningfulness, and control. Event frequencies of desirable and undesirable events replicated previous work, but contrary to our expectations, there were no differences in how husbands from distressed and nondistressed marriages viewed events.     

Establishing Criterion Scores for the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale and the Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale

This study demonstrates the usefulness of the KMSS and RDAS in distinguishing between the maritally distressed and nondistressed. For conceptual and statistical clarity, many marital interaction and marital therapy research measures, use a single cutoff score. It was determined that the cutoff score is 17 for the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale (KMSS) and 48 for the Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (RDAS) for husbands, wives, and couples. An equivalency table of mathematical formulas is also presented, allowing the conversion of individual and couple scores from one measure of marital quality to another. It is now possible to convert a score from any one of a number of instruments (KMSS, RDAS, Dyadic Adjustment Scale, Marital Adjustment Test, Revised Marital Adjustment Test) to an equivalent score as measured by another instrument.     

Distress and Divorce: Establishing Cutoff Scores for the Marital Status Inventory

This study was designed to identify Marital Status Inventory (MSI) scores that could be used as cutoff points for degrees of marital distress. Cutoff scores are useful in clinical work as a way to estimate degrees of marital distress, differentiate couples for treatments, and to provide uniformity across studies. Subjects consisted of 474 couples requesting marital therapy at a university-based clinic. Based on their individual Marital Adjustment Test (MAT) scores, participants were placed in severely distressed, moderately distressed, and non-distressed groups. Using a discriminant analysis, MSI scores of 4 for husbands and 5 for wives were found to be useful cutoff points for severe distress.     

“My way or no way”: Anarchic power,relationship satisfaction,and male violence

Abstract It was hypothesized that couples experiencing husband violence are more likely than nonviolent couples to have “anarchic” power outcomes, that is, the failure to reach agreement or make a decision when discussing relationship problems. Three groups of U.S. couples in committed relationships participated in the current study: 41 experiencing husband violence, 23 nonviolent but maritally distressed, and 39 nonviolent‐nondistressed. The power outcome was assessed by noting which partner's solution couples adopted using both hypothetical and actual marital problem discussions. The study findings suggested that power gridlocks are related to relationship dysfunction but may not be specifically linked to husband violence among a community sample. The conclusion includes a discussion of the methodological and theoretical issues that need to be considered in future research.     

Association of Interpersonal Cognitive Complexity with Communication Skill in Marriage: Moderating Effects of Marital Distress

Little research has examined the influence of social cognition on communicative behaviors that spouses exhibit in conversational interactions. The present study examined the associations between interpersonal cognitive complexity and three marital communication skills: communication effectiveness (generating messages that have the desired outcome), predictive accuracy (anticipating accurately the effects of a message on a receiver), and perceptual accuracy (correctly inferring the intent of a message source). The study also evaluated whether marital distress moderated associations between cognitive complexity and communication skills. Participants (60 couples) discussed a problem from their own marriage and a vignette from the Inventory of Marital Conflicts ( 32 ) using the communication box. Cognitive complexity was moderately associated with perceptual accuracy, weakly associated with communication effectiveness, and not associated with predictive accuracy. Subsidiary analyses revealed that associations between cognitive complexity and the communication skills were generally stronger in the sub-sample of distressed couples than in the subsample of nondistressed couples.     

Clinical utility and validation of the Couple's Communicative Evaluation Scale

This study assessed the validity and clinical utility of a new test, the Couple's Communicative Evaluation Scale. With 24 couples from a variety of resources, e.g., churches, newspaper, and colleges, a discriminant analysis using the Dyadic Adjustment Scale, indicated that satisfied couples could be discriminated from issatisfied couples with 91-96% accuracy. Significant differences on the scale were found for means between 7 distressed and 16 nondistressed couples using the satisfaction/dissatisfaction cutoff score of 200 on the Dyadic Adjustment Scale and significant differences on the individual scales were found for means between 16 distressed and 31 nondistressed individuals using the satisfaction/dissatisfaction cutoff score of 100 on the Dyadic Adjustment Scale. Demographic variables, e.g., age, marriage length, were statistically significant. Scale scores were highly correlated with those on the Dyadic Adjustment Scale, indicating good validity. Using all 400 items, an alpha of .99 indicated good internal consistency for the verbal, nonverbal, and listening communication scores.     

The Partners for Life Program: A Couples Approach to Cardiac Risk Reduction

Morbidity and mortality are reliably lower for the married compared with the unmarried across a variety of illnesses. What is less well understood is how a couple uses their relationship for recommended lifestyle changes associated with decreased risk for illness. Partners for Life compared a patient and partner approach to behavior change with a patient only approach on such factors as exercise, nutrition, and medication adherence. Ninety‐three patients and their spouses/partners consented to participate (26% of those eligible) and were randomized into either the individual or couples condition. However, only 80 couples, distributed across conditions, contributed data to the analyses, due to missing data and missing data points. For exercise, there was a significant effect of couples treatment on the increase in activity and a significant effect of couples treatment on the acceleration of treatment over time. In addition, there was an interaction between marital satisfaction and treatment condition such that patients who reported higher levels of marital distress in the individuals condition did not maintain their physical activity gains by the end of treatment, while both distressed and nondistressed patients in the couples treatment exhibited accelerating gains throughout treatment. In terms of medication adherence, patients in the couples treatment exhibited virtually no change in medication adherence over time, while patients in the individuals treatment showed a 9% relative decrease across time. There were no condition or time effects for nutritional outcomes. Finally, there was an interaction between baseline marital satisfaction and treatment condition such that patients in the individuals condition who reported lower levels of initial marital satisfaction showed deterioration in marital satisfaction, while non satisfied patients in the couples treatment showed improvement over time.     

Marital interaction: physiological linkage and affective exchange

Thirty married couples were studied during naturalistic interactions to determine the extent to which variation in marital satisfaction could be accounted for by physiological and affective patterns between and within spouses. The authors hypothesized that (a) compared to nondistressed couples' interactions, distressed couples' interactions would show greater physiological interrelatedness or "linkage," more negative affect, and more reciprocity of negative affect and (b) these differences would be more pronounced when the interaction was high in conflict (discussing a marital problem) as opposed to low in conflict (discussing the events of the day). Heart rate, skin conductance, pulse transmission time, and somatic activity from both spouses were analyzed using bivariate time-series techniques to derive a measure of physiological linkage. Self-report affective data (obtained using a video-recall procedure) were analyzed using sequential analyses to derive a measure of affect reciprocity. The hypotheses were strongly supported; 60% of the variance in marital satisfaction was accounted for using measures of physiological linkage alone. Additional nonredundant variance was accounted for by the other physiological and affective measures.     

A comparison of sexually dysfunctional, maritally disturbed and well-adjusted couples

Married couples seeking sex therapy, marital therapy, or no form of therapy were compared with respect to personality, sexual and marital functioning. The Sexual Dysfunction and Marital Difficulties groups (15 and 10 couples respectively) were obtained from the waiting lists of a sexual dysfunction service and marital therapy unit. Non-Problem subjects (15 couples) were from a volunteer sample. Personal adjustment, sexual and marital functioning were assessed by means of the Eysenck Personality Inventory, a Sexual Behavior Questionnaire, the Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Survey, and the Azrin Marital Happiness Scale. Results indicated that although all three groups were within the normal range, problem couples had higher ‘neuroticism’ scores than did Non-Problem couples. Marital Problem couples were the most debilitated. Their marital adjustment was lowest, and their sexual functioning was comparable to the Sexual Dysfunction group. Marital adjustment of the Sexual Dysfunction couples was significantly higher than that of the Marital Difficulties couples. Therapeutic and theoretical implications of the differentiating characteristics in the three couple categories are discussed.