THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COMMUNICATION SKILL AND MARITAL SATISFACTION- SOME MODERATING EFFECTS

This article proposes that the relationship between communication skil ls and marital satisfaction is not simple and straightforward, but rat her is quite complex, varying as a function of several moderating fact ors-skill type, marital distress, gender, and analytic unit (couple, s elf; or other). Participants (30 distressed couples and 30 nondistress ed couples) completed tasks providing assessments of four communicatio n skills and two aspects of marital satisfaction. Analyses revealed th at the magnitude-and even the direction-of the associations varied as a function of the moderating variables. In particular skills and satis faction were positively associated among nondistressed couples, but we re negatively associated among distressed couples. The results are exp lored in terms of their implications for research on communication in marriage and the treatment of marital distress.