Newlyweds Tell their Stories: A Narrative Method for Assessing Marital Experiences

Abstract

This article describes three coding systems used to analyze systematically joint narratives told by 344 black and white newlywed couples about the `story of their relationship', as part of a program of study of the early years of marriage. The first coding system of these accounts captures the affects mentioned in the stories; the second assesses husband-wife interactions in telling the stories; and the third identifies styles and themes characterizing both the overall story and specific substories within the narratives. A summary of results based on these coding schemes is outlined. Several narrative measures were found to be related to marital quality over time. A number of these measures help clarify ways in which black couples ( n = 176) in comparison to white couples ( n = 167) are alike and ways in which they are different. We discuss the role of these coding schemes for capturing `meaning-making' in story construction. In addition, we illustrate the possibility for analyzing changes in narrative memory and its connection to affective development in people.

Telling Tales: Enacting Family Relationships in Joint Storytelling About Difficult Family Experiences

“…While story features such as coherence and perspective-taking likely contribute to these benefits, in the context of a shared story concepts like coherence become family-level accomplishments rather than individual accomplishments. Additionally, narrative research indicates that the processes associated with joint tellings may offer information about relational qualities such as marital satisfaction (Dickstein et al, 1999;Veroff et al, 1993a;Wamboldt, 1999). Despite the connections already made in the literature, little research has extended this type of investigation to the family level or to the coconstruction of difficult stories.…”

“…Stories, however, are often joint constructions (Gergen & Gergen, 1987;Mandelbaum, 1989), either collaboratively created with the listener (Bavelas, Coates, & Johnson, 2000;Mandelbaum, 1989;Polanyi, 1985) or coconstructed by people who participated in the event together (Koenig Kellas & Trees, 2006;Mandelbaum, 1987;Veroff, Sutherland, Chadiha, & Ortega, 1993a). In addition, stressors often are experienced and talked about with others in the relational network, such as family members (Mickelson, Lyons, Sullivan, & Coyne, 2001).…”

“…Although research has not yet examined links between jointly telling difficult stories and family well-being, past research demonstrates the connection between joint storytelling behavior and relational qualities in spouses' stories about relational development (e.g., Carrere, Buehlman, Gottman, Coan, & Ruckstuhl, 2000;Veroff et al, 1993a;Veroff, Sutherland, Chadiha, & Ortega, 1993b). For example, Veroff and colleagues in the Early Years of Marriage Study (i.e., Veroff et al, 1993aVeroff et al, , 1993b collected newlyweds' stories and found that the more similarity between husband and wives' styles of interacting, the more satisfied the couples were three years later.…”

“…For example, Veroff and colleagues in the Early Years of Marriage Study (i.e., Veroff et al, 1993aVeroff et al, , 1993b collected newlyweds' stories and found that the more similarity between husband and wives' styles of interacting, the more satisfied the couples were three years later. Similarly, researchers using the Oral History Interview argued that the perceptions and behaviors revealed in the narrative provide insight into marital quality and experiences over time .…”

Hostile Marital Interactions, Proinflammatory Cytokine Production, and Wound Healing

“…Prior to the discussions, each spouse was asked to identify an important personal characteristic, problem, or issue that he or she wished to change, with the explicit restriction that the issue could not be a source of marital dissension. 32 Next, using the Relationship History Interview, 33 couples were asked to tell the story of their relationship for 30 minutes.…”