The rate of divorce for American couples has increased twenty percent since 1970, peaking in 1980 and falling slowly through the eighties and nineties, while plateauing in the 2000’s. Although some have interpreted this trend as promising, it is in reality probably best explained by a self-selection bias derived from the drop in actual marriages since 1970 (falling more than 20 percent; U.S. Statistical Abstract, 2006). Given this postulate, many researchers and clinicians have studied to find an answer as to why so many marriages in America are failing. Some of their findings indicate that couples who marry later, date longer, have internal religiosity, and avoid cohabitation may significantly decrease their likelihood for divorce (for a review see Gottman & Notorius, 2002; VanDenBerghe, 2000).
However, another intriguing facet of this complex nomological network regards marital conflict, and more particularly conflict topic, resolution, and structure (Markman, Silvern, Clements, & Kraft-Hanak, 1993). According to research, conflict has a great impact on how each spouse views his or her role and importance in the relationship. A careful distinction should be made in that conflict itself may not always have a negative impact on marital satisfaction—indeed some research has shown conflict to increase marital satisfaction (for a review see Gottman & Notorius, 2002; Karney & Branbury, 1995)—but rather the conflictual subject and interaction, including the manner in which conflict is carried out and resolved, appears to primarily explain the variance in levels of satisfaction (Christensen 1988; Christensen 1987). This essay will elementally review these three aspects of conflict and briefly evaluate each aspect’s effect on marital satisfaction.
Conflict subject
Contrary to former beliefs about anger as a negative indicator for marital happiness Gottman, Coan, Carrere, and Swanson (1998) found that anger was not a consistent predictor of divorce. Further, Gottman and Krokoff (1989) have identified conflict topics as sometimes first decreasing but later increasing marital satisfaction over time. This finding has led to some controversy among theoreticians and clinicians, but the work of Acitelli (1992) may explain why this is sometimes the case. According to her research, there is a gender effect for how conflict will yield satisfaction or dissatisfaction over time.
-Heath Sommer
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