Changes in marital satisfaction: Both spouses’ self-reports of neuroticism, attachment anxiety, and attachment avoidance are predictors of change

How both partners’ individual differences, stress, and behavior predict change in relationship satisfaction: Extending the VSA model. James K. McNulty, Andrea L. Meltzer,  Lisa A. Neff, and  Benjamin R. Karney.  July 6, 2021 118 (27) e2101402118; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2101402118

Significance: Understanding the factors that explain declines in marital satisfaction is one of the most pressing challenges for relationship science. Yet, several lines of recent research relying on singular theoretical models have questioned our ability to do so. The current research pooled data from 10 independent longitudinal studies of married couples to test a theoretical model that integrates multiple perspectives spanning numerous disciplines. Findings support and extend this model to indicate that both partners’ interpersonal behaviors interact with both partners’ experiences with stress over time to mediate the implications of both partners’ enduring qualities for changes in marital satisfaction. Accordingly, understanding one source of influence on relationships requires acknowledging the independent and interactive effects of the other sources of influence.

Abstract: We pooled data from 10 longitudinal studies of 1,104 married couples to test the Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation (VSA) model of change in relationship satisfaction. Studies contained both spouses’ self-reports of neuroticism, attachment anxiety, and attachment avoidance; observational measures of engagement and opposition during problem-solving discussions at baseline; and repeated reports of both spouses’ stress and marital satisfaction over several years. Consistent with the VSA model, all three individual and partner qualities predicted changes in marital satisfaction that were mediated by observations of behavior and moderated by both partners’ experiences with stress. In contrast to the VSA model, however, rather than accentuating the association between individual differences and behavior, both partners’ stress moderated the strength, and even direction, of the association between behavior and changes in marital satisfaction over time. Taken together, these findings indicate that 1) qualities of both couple members shape their behavioral exchanges, 2) these behaviors explain how individuals and their partners’ enduring qualities predict relationship satisfaction, and 3) stress experienced by both couple members strongly determines how enduring qualities and behavior predict changes in relationship satisfaction over time. The complex interplay among both partners’ enduring qualities, stress, and behavior helps explain why studies may fail to document direct main effects of own and partner enduring qualities and behavior on changes in relationship satisfaction over time.

Keywords: marriagestressinterpersonal communicationpersonalityattachment security

Check also People can know how their relationship partners make them feel, but, because they often desire to see their relationship partners in a positive light, they may avoid accessing these feelings

Hicks, L. L., McNulty, J. K., Faure, R., Meltzer, A. L., Righetti, F., & Hofmann, W. (2021). Do people realize how their partners make them feel? Relationship enhancement motives and stress determine the link between implicitly assessed partner attitudes and relationship satisfaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 120(2), 335–369.  https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2021/02/people-can-know-how-their-relationship.html