Individuals' attitudes towards their spouses and relationship, including the emotional climate of marriage are essential for a satisfying marriage. In an unhealthy climate, on other hand, severe symptoms may emerge. One these is focus-on-child, where child-related issues often cause marital conflicts. The conflicts due to focus-on-child also increase experiential avoidance as coping style in re...

OBJECTIVE To investigate possible associations of alexithymia with marital satisfaction and mutual attachment between the partners in a group of parents-to-be during pregnancy. METHODS The present study was conducted in a pregnancy cohort. Cross-sectional data were available for 151 mothers and 106 fathers, and altogether 102 couples. The 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) was used to...

Two studies examined whether forgiveness in married couples is associated with better conflict resolution. Study 1 examined couples in their 3rd year of marriage and identified 2 forgiveness dimensions (retaliation and benevolence). Husbands' retaliatory motivation was a significant predictor of poorer wife-reported conflict resolution, whereas wives' benevolence motivation predicted husbands' ...

We examined the association between marital conflict and child abuse potential in N = 86 Dutch families from low socioeconomic backgrounds. The percentage of parents who exceeded the upper 5 percent cut-off score on Milner’s Child Abuse Potential Inventory was 17%. It was found that lower socioeconomic status, relatively inadequate marital conflict strategies, and fewer marital conflicts predic...

OBJECTIVE To investigate (i) marital benefit, e.g., that infertility has strengthen the marriage and brought the partners closer together among people beginning fertility treatment and (ii) communication and coping strategies as predictors of marital benefit 12 months later. METHODS A prospective cohort design including 2250 people beginning fertility treatment and a 12-month follow-up. Data ...

Three studies involving 328 married couples were conducted to validate the Marital Offence-Specific Forgiveness Scale, a new measure assessing offence-specific forgiveness for marital transgressions. The studies examined the dimensionality; internal consistency; and discriminant, concurrent, and predictive validity of the new measure. The final scale comprised 2 distinct correlated dimensions, ...

BACKGROUND Various research studies have suggested that among other variables that couples remain married if they successfully manage their interactions (marital communication based on acceptance of individual differences, problem solving skills, forgiveness, collaborative decision making, empathy and active listening) and constructively manage conflict. PURPOSE The study was aimed at examini...