Common sense suggests that romantic partners tend to be interdependent in their well-being and self-esteem. The authors tested the degree to which codevelopment in romantic partners (i.e., development in similar directions) is due to mutual influence between partners or due to the effects of shared environment, using longitudinal data from 5…

Marital processes in early marriage are important for understanding couples' future marital quality. Spouses' attributions about a partner's behavior have been linked to marital quality, yet the mechanisms underlying this association remain largely unknown. When we used couple data from the Family Transitions Project (N = 280 couples) across the…

Objective: This study investigated the association between hostility and health and whether it is moderated by the quality of an individual's primary romantic relationship. Method: Longitudinal data were provided by 184 African Americans, including 166 women. Participants averaged 38 years old and were married or in long-term marriagelike…

Self-report scales assessing relationship-specific incentive and threat sensitivity were created. Initial tests of factor structure and associations with relationship quality were conducted in a sample of persons in intimate relationships (Study 1). Associations with conceptually related measures were examined to determine convergent and…

This study examined culture-specific attachment systems in Japan (including an Okinawan sample), Korea, China, United States, and the United Kingdom, using a questionnaire to measure the relative importance of various categories of interpersonal relations. Subjects were male and female university students and fathers and mothers of kindergarten…

Examines and compares affective orientations of 79 perpetrators, 57 victims, and 70 functional spouses. Perpetrators were significantly more alexithymic than functional spouses but not significantly different from victims. Deficit of positive affect versus the presence of negative affect was a significant indicator of physical abuse reported…