Does Long-Term Marriage Bring Less Frequent Disagreements?

Abstract

Studies of marital conflict have concluded that the frequency of disagreements between spouses declines over time in a marital relationship. Using cross-sectional and longitudinal data from the National Survey of Families and Households, the authors examine the frequency of marital disagreements concerning household tasks, money, sex, and spending time together reported by married women and men age 20 to 79. The study results refute a developmental explanation for marital disagreement, which posits that disagreements decline as marital partners accommodate themselves to one another over time. The results indicate, however, that increased marital duration may bring increased marital disagreements, depending on family life course stage (particularly, the presence of children in the home), and potentially also depending on spouses' ages and birth cohorts. The results also suggest a limited role of selective attrition in explaining the frequency of marital disagreements, in that couples who disagree more frequently are more likely to divorce or separate, particularly respondents of younger ages/birth cohorts, who have been married for relatively briefer periods of time.

Gender, Marital Power, and Marital Quality in Later Life

“…Previous research finds that age appears to be a stronger and more consistent predictor of marital quality than marital duration (Umberson et al, 2005); older men and women report fewer marital disagreements, and this relationship is not attributable to length of the marriage (Hatch & Bulcroft, 2004). Remarriages are associated with lower levels of marital quality than first marriages (Kaufman & Taniguchi, 2006), although some qualitative work suggests that later-life remarriages may actually be characterized by higher levels of satisfaction and power for older women (Clarke, 2005).…”

Families with Distinct Levels of Marital Conflict and Child Adjustment: Which Role for Maternal and Paternal Stress?

“…It is therefore important to determine the degree to which the paths from parenting stress to child adjustment are uniform for mothers and fathers. Moreover, since there is in the literature a general consensus in supporting the idea that marital conflict could decline with increasing length of marriage (Hatch and Bulcroft 2004), we have controlled the effects of the length of the marital relationship in exploring the associations above mentioned. We hypothesize that, in families connoted by high levels of conflict compared to families with lower levels of conflict, interparental conflict is more predictive of children's internalizing and externalizing problems (H1) and it exerts more spillover effects on maternal and paternal stress (H2).…”

Conflict Resolution in Mexican‐Origin Couples: Culture, Gender, and Marital Quality

“…First, investigations of the nature and correlates of conflict resolution processes in long-term marriages provide opportunities to identify potential strengths that may inform preventive intervention efforts. Second, because marital conflicts often increase when adolescents are present in the home (Hatch & Bulcroft, 2004), this period of child rearing may be an important time to explore marital conflict resolution.…”