The longitudinal impact of demand and withdrawal during marital conflict.
Forty-eight couples completed a measure of relationship satisfaction and participated in 2 video-taped problem-solving interactions, 1 focused on an issue identified by the woman and 1 focused on an issue identified by the man. Thirty-six men and 36 women completed the satisfaction measure again 2.5 years later. Demandingness, and to a lesser extent withdrawal, during the interactions showed many significant associations with both Time 1 and Time 2 satisfaction. The relationship of demandingness and withdrawal to change in satisfaction was also examined using both change scores and partial correlations. Withdrawal by men and woman demand-man withdraw during discussions of issues identified by the women reliably predicted change (decline) in wives' relationship satisfaction.
Heavey
C L
CL
Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas 89154-5030, USA.
Christensen
A
A
Malamuth
N M
NM
D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology*; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011340:Problem Solving