It is considered a research based assessment the evaluates a relationship on the basis of the four predictors
of marital stability.
Certain variables, such as experiencing affirmation by one's spouse,
predict marital stability for husbands, but not for wives [55].
With other variables controlled, an inverse age at marriage - instability relationship persists; and differences
in marital stability by education appear largely attributable to differences in age at marriage by education.
Understanding factors that
impact marital stability is important, as many studies have demonstrated negative consequences of relationship dissolution for both adults and children.
Higher levels of education, income, and employment are generally more predictive of
higher marital stability and satisfaction.
Higher levels of financial satisfaction are related to higher levels of marital satisfaction, suggesting that those with fewer financial stressors may enjoy
improved marital stability.
Relationship dissolution is associated with negative consequences both for adults and children, so it is important to understand the factors that help
retain marital stability.
Personality and compatibility: A prospective analysis
of marital stability and marital satisfaction.
Although the underlying mechanisms of these advantages for boys are not clear, it is plausible that
greater marital stability and parental happiness decrease parental stress in families with sons.
e.g. Couples who are similar in «age, preference for future children and smoking practices are associated
with marital stability.»
It is possible that different families exhibit countervailing positive and negative responses to these policies that could not be detected here (or that these welfare policies
increased marital stability among two - parent families, a group not examined because of data constraints).
Building on findings that the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP) resulted in higher rates of
marital stability among two - parent recipient families who participated in this initiative that provided financial incentives to welfare recipients who worked, this report documents MFIP's long - term effects on marriage and divorce among participants in the program's sample of nearly 2,500 two - parent families who were married or cohabiting at study entry.
Amato and Booth review the literature and found this idea received limited support, in that loss of contact with a parent was seen with lower levels of
adult marital stability, and the younger the child at the time of the divorce, the greater the impact.
Together, the renowned experts on
marital stability run The Gottman Institute, which is devoted to helping couples build and maintain loving, healthy relationships based on scientific studies.
One study suggest that living in a non-marital union «has a direct negative impact on
subsequent marital stability» perhaps because living in such a union «undermines the legitimacy of formal marriage» and so «reduces the commitment of marriage.»
He reminds us, if we have forgotten or never knew, that under the George W. Bush administrations more than 200 programs were instituted to
aid marital stability.
MFIP's initial results were tantalizing in large part because MFIP was not specifically targeted to affect marriage, divorce, or separations, and yet it appeared to produce large effects on the likelihood that some two - parent families would stay together, suggesting that strategies that tackle the vagaries of poverty could promote
marital stability by reducing some of the economic stress on poor families.
This topic has been studied extensively in the US, and there is a well - documented positive relationship between marital satisfaction and marital stability [27, 37].
In one of the many studies on couples performed by The Gottman Institute, Carrére and Gottman (1999) observed 124 newlywed couples, married for the first time for less than six months, to learn if it was possible to predict divorce or
marital stability based on how a couple interacted in a conflict.
One study, for example, found that Gottman's seminars had no impact on a couple's long -
term marital stability and that the seminars might even increase a couple's likelihood of divorce.
John Gottman, Ph.D. is a world -
renowned marital stability expert who has conducted decades of research on the study of emotions, physiology, communication, and divorce prediction.
Additionally, higher rates of premarital sexual experience with multiple partners have been linked to extramarital sex, which is a predictor of
lower marital stability and divorce.
This type of successful coupling flies in the face of conventional wisdom that
links marital stability to skillful «talking things out.»
Using a sample of 337 couples derived from a longitudinal study of families living in the rural midwest, this study examines the influence of work - family conflict on marital quality and
marital stability as it is mediated through psychological distress and quality of marital interaction.
Mr. WADE HORN (Assistant Secretary, Administration for Children & Families): What
predicts marital stability are the very kinds of skills that we're talking about, that couples who listen to each other, whose positive interactions outweigh negative interactions, are much more likely to stay together in a satisfying relationship than those that don't do those things.
Most of this increase
in marital stability was a result of fewer reported separations in MFIP families as compared to AFDC families, although some of it was a result of small reductions in divorce.
The researcher concludes that the male breadwinner stereotype is still very much alive, and can
impact marital stability.
World renowned for his work
on marital stability and divorce prediction, John Gottman has conducted 40 years of breakthrough research with thousands of couples.
An early study by Gary Becker and colleagues (1977) found that the relationship is non-linear: at first, increases in age at marriage are associated with
greater marital stability, but after a point, additional increases are associated with lower stability.
Amato and Booth review the literature and found this idea received limited support, in that loss of contact with a parent was seen with lower levels of
adult marital stability, and the younger the child at the time of the divorce, the greater the impact.
Together, the renowned experts on
marital stability run The Gottman Institute, which is devoted to helping couples build and maintain loving, healthy relationships based on scientific studies.