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Marital satisfaction is associated with health and well-being in older couples over time, whereas psychological resilience and marital strain are major predictors explaining the variance of these outcomes.

Different types of cognitions in close relationships have been identified. Yet, little is known about the nature and effects of most of them, such as marital standards. In our research project 'What makes marriages last?' we applied a German adaptation of the 'Inventory of Specific Relationship Standards,' a questionnaire measuring how much sharing, egalitarianism and investment spouses feel they should have and actually experience in their own marriage. We hypothesized that high, i.e., relationshipfocused standards, should be associated with dyadic coping processes as well as with marital satisfaction. Thereby, dyadic coping was expected to play a mediating role between standards and marital satisfaction. Based on a sample of 663 German married couples, we found significant correlations between standards, marital satisfaction, and dyadic coping processes. Moreover, supportive behavior in stressful situations had the expected partial mediating effect, which turned out to be slightly different for husbands and wives. Implications for preventive and therapeutic intervention are discussed.Over the last decades the question how marriages develop and what factors influence their success or failure has aroused the interest of psychological research (e.g.accumulated quite a solid knowledge about the relevance of communication processes and conflict resolution styles

We explore the relationship between couples' stable personality variables associated with interpersonal competencies (referred to here as relationship personality variables) and marital satisfaction with conflict resolution style as the mediating factor. Eighty-three newlywed couples participated in the study at 6 points over 5 years at 1-year intervals. The results indicate strong mediational effects across time. In particular, conflict resolution styles appear to form during the 1st year of marriage and are habituated thereafter to a large extent. The relationship personality variables correspond closely with conflict resolution styles, which in turn influence marital satisfaction. The implications for intervention, especially for preventive intervention in early marriage, are presented.

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