title: Beyond the average marital communication: Latent profiles of the observed interactions among Chinese newlywed couples.
abstract: Employing a multicontext observational design, using a person-centered approach, and treating the marital dyad as the unit of analysis, this study examined the within-couple communication patterning of 144 Chinese newlywed couples and its association with relationship satisfaction. Latent profile analysis consistently revealed 3 profiles of spouses' interactive behaviors across contexts differing in both topic nature (i.e., problem-solving vs. social support) and initiator (i.e., husbands vs. wives): (a) traditionally undemonstrative profile, (b) emotionally quarrelling profile, and (c) warmly supportive profile. The prevalence of communication profiles changed markedly with the nature of the discussion topic and the topic initiator. Further, using latent class analysis, we classified couples into subgroups based on their identified profile memberships across contexts (i.e., consistency of interaction mode across contexts). Three classes were identified: (a) consistently quarrelling class, (b) consistently supportive class, and (c) modestly traditional class. Both the consistently supportive class and the modestly traditional class reported significantly higher levels of marital satisfaction than did the consistently quarrelling class.
authors.affiliation: Human Development and Family Studies, University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
authors.forename: Hongjian
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Institute of Developmental Psychology, Beijing Normal University.
authors.forename: Xiaoyi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: Human Development and Family Studies, University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Fine
authors.affiliation: School of Social Work, China Youth University for Political Sciences.
authors.forename: Xiaoyan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ju
authors.affiliation: Institute of Developmental Psychology, Beijing Normal University.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lan
authors.affiliation: College of Education, Hangzhou Normal University.
authors.forename: Xuanwen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002681:China; D003142:Communication; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology*; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D018454:Spouses / Q000523:psychology*