Newlywed’s Narrative Themes: Meaning in the First Year of Marriage for African American and White Couples

Chadiha, Letha A.; Veroff, Joseph; Leber, Douglas

doi:10.3138/jcfs.29.1.115

Cited by 37 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 11 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…A large proportion of husbands and wives had at least some college education (husbands: 64%; wives: 69%) and most were employed at least part-time (husbands: 89%; wives 75%). Consistent with other studies of newly married couples [19–21], many of the couples were parents at the time of marriage (38% of the husbands and 43% of the wives) and were living together prior to marriage (70%). The Institutional Review Board of the State University of New York at Buffalo approved the research protocol.…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 87%

The longitudinal association between multiple substance use discrepancies and marital satisfaction

et al. 2009

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

AIMS-The objective of this work was to examine the relation between patterns of substance use among newly married couples and marital satisfaction over time. In particular, this work examined if differences between husbands' and wives' heavy alcohol use and cigarette smoking, rather than simply use per se, predicted decreases in marital satisfaction over the first seven years of marriage. METHODS-Married couples (n=634 couples)were assessed on a variety of substance use and relationship variables at the time of marriage and again at the first, second, fourth and seventh year of marriage.RESULTS-After controlling for key sociodemographic variables, discrepancies in husband and wife cigarette smoking and heavy alcohol use were related to significant reductions in marital satisfaction. Importantly, couples who were discrepant on both substances experienced the greatest declines in marital satisfaction over time.CONCLUSIONS-Patterns of substance use among newly married couples are important predictors of changes in marital functioning over time. It was not simply the heavy alcohol use or cigarette smoking that predicted dissatisfaction, but rather, differences between husbands' and wives' substance use that impacted the relationship. KeywordsAlcohol Use; Tobacco Use; Discrepancy; Marital Satisfaction Individuals tend to select mates that are more like themselves in a variety of ways. For example, Price and Vandenberg [1] found that couples reported a great deal of similarity in types of social activities, levels of activity, compulsiveness, and conformity. In a review of 103 studies of health concordance, Meyler and colleagues [2] found significant evidence of similarity for physical health, mental health, and health behaviors such as dietary intake. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptAddiction. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2010 July 1. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptAmong newly married couples, significant concordance has been found for alcohol use [3], cigarette smoking [4], and illicit drug use [5]. Selecting a mate based on the similarity of characteristics, experience, and behaviors can also mean that future behaviors are derived from earlier, shared experiences. For example, Rhule-Louie and McMahon [6] suggest that concordance of problem behaviors among couples (e.g. substance abuse) may be a secondary outcome on the basis of couples who share similar, antisocial environments.There is also evidence that suggests that the observed similarity among couples develops through some type of change process that has been described variously in the literature as a partner influence model [7,8], social contagion [9,10], or convergence [1,11]. In a longitudinal study of married couples (the same data as the current report), one spouse's level of depressive symptoms predicted increases in the partner's depressive symptoms [12]. These results remained after considering other risk factors and the health status of the partners. In a more behaviorally relevant domain, B...

show abstract

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 87%

The longitudinal association between multiple substance use discrepancies and marital satisfaction

et al. 2009

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Consistent with other studies of newly married couples (e.g. Chadiha, Veroff, & Leber, 1998), many of the couples were parents at the time of marriage (38% of the husbands and 43% of the wives) and were living together prior to marriage (70%). The Institutional Review Board of the State University of New York at Buffalo approved the research protocol.…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 87%

Longitudinal moderators of the relationship between excessive drinking and intimate partner violence in the early years of marriage.

Schumacher¹,

Homish²,

Leonard³

et al. 2008

Journal of Family Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Alcohol problems are one of the most well-established risk factors for physical intimate partner violence. Nonetheless most individuals who drink heavily do so without ever aggressing against a partner. Laboratory research identifies hostility as an important moderator of the association between alcohol and general aggression, and correlational research suggests stress and coping may also be important moderators of the alcohol-aggression link. Building on this research, the present study examines hostility, coping, and daily hassles as moderators of the associations between excessive drinking and intimate partner violence across the first four years of marriage in a sample of 634 newly married couples. Excessive drinking was a significant cross-sectional correlate, but did not emerge as a unique longitudinal predictor of intimate partner violence perpetration in this sample. However, alcohol was longitudinally predictive of husband violence among hostile men with high levels of avoidance coping. Findings generally supported the moderation model, particularly for men. These findings implicate hostility, coping, and daily hassles, as well as alcohol, as potentially important targets for partner violence prevention strategies for young married couples.

show abstract

“…A large proportion of fathers and mothers had at least some college education (fathers: 64%; mothers: 69%) and most were employed at least part-time (fathers: 89%; mothers 75%). Consistent with other studies of newly married couples (Chadiha, Veroff, & Leber, 1998; Crohan & Veroff, 1989; Orbuch & Veroff, 2002), many of the couples were parents at the time of marriage (38% of the fathers and 43% of the mothers) and were living together prior to marriage (70%). The Institutional Review Board of the State University of New York at Buffalo approved the research protocol.…”

Section: 0 Methodssupporting

confidence: 86%

Analyzing family data: A GEE approach for substance use researchers

Homish

Edwards

Eiden

et al. 2010

Addictive Behaviors

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Introduction-Analyzing data that arises from correlated observations such as husband-wife pairs, siblings, or repeated assessments of the same individuals over time requires more specialized analytic tools. Additionally, outcomes that are not normally distributed, count data, such as number of symptoms or number of problems endorsed, also require specialized analytic tools. Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) are a very flexible tool for dealing with correlated data (such as data derived from related individuals such as families). The objective of this report was to compare traditional Ordinary Least Squares Regression (OLS) to a GEE approach for analyzing family data.

show abstract

Newlywed’s Narrative Themes: Meaning in the First Year of Marriage for African American and White Couples

Cited by 37 publications

References 11 publications

The longitudinal association between multiple substance use discrepancies and marital satisfaction

The longitudinal association between multiple substance use discrepancies and marital satisfaction

Longitudinal moderators of the relationship between excessive drinking and intimate partner violence in the early years of marriage.

Analyzing family data: A GEE approach for substance use researchers

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About