Blacks report lower marital quality and face a higher risk of marital dissolution than Whites, but little is known about how Hispanics compare to these two groups. We examine five dimensions of marital quality as well as marital dissolution for Blacks, Whites, and Mexican Americans using data from the National Survey of Families and Households (N=6,231). Mexican Americans and Whites have simila...

Sexual satisfaction, marital quality, and marital instability have been studied over the life course of couples in many previous studies, but less in relation to each other. On the basis of the longitudinal data from 283 married couples, the authors used autoregressive models in this study to examine the causal sequences among these 3 constructs for husbands and wives separately. Results of cro...

I examine variation in trajectories of women's marital quality across the life course. The analysis improves upon earlier research in three ways: (1) the analysis uses a sequential cohort design and data from the first 35years of marriage; (2) I analyze rich data from a national sample; (3) I examine multiple dimensions of marital quality. Latent class growth analyses estimated on data from wom...

Previous research has shown marital status and marital quality are consistent predictors of health outcomes, including cardiovascular disease and mortality. To better understand the relationship among marital status, marital quality, and cardiovascular health, we examined how marital status and marital quality were associated with an early indicator of deteriorating cardiovascular health, high-...

OBJECTIVE Few studies have gone beyond studying marital status to examine effects of marital quality on body weight. This study examined the association of marital quality with weight change and incident obesity in midlife. It differentiated positive and negative components of marital quality considering overall marital quality, marital support, and marital strain. METHOD Data are from 2,636 ...

Marriages consist of shared experiences and interactions between husbands and wives that may lead to different impressions of the quality of the relationship. Few studies, unfortunately, have tested gender differences in the structure of marital quality, and even fewer studies have evaluated whether genetic and environmental influences on marital quality differ across gender. In this study, we ...

Using data from a community sample of 586 married couples, levels of spouse concordance for lifetime and current alcohol dependence and heavy drinking were estimated. In addition, marital quality ratings in concordant and discordant couples were compared. Spouse concordance was significant for lifetime alcohol dependence and for both lifetime and current heavy drinking. Marital quality varied a...

OBJECTIVES The pathways linking spousal health to marital quality in later life have been little examined at the population level. We develop a conceptual model that links married older adults' physical health and that of their spouse to positive and negative dimensions of marital quality via psychological well-being of both partners and their sexual activity. METHODS We use data from 1,464 o...