RELATIONSHIP SATISFACTION, ATTACHMENT, AND NONVERBAL ACCURACY IN EARLY MARRIAGE

This study explored the relations between nonverbal accuracy, relation ship satisfaction, and adult attachment in early marriage. Thirty-thre e couples were assessed at three points in time across the first two y ears of marriage. On all three occasions, they engaged in an encoding and decoding task using the standard content paradigm (Kahn, 1970) and completed the Quality Marriage Index (Norton, 1983). At Times 2 and 3 subjects also completed a measure of adult attachment which provided scores on Comfort with closeness and Anxiety over abandonment. Nonverb al accuracy increased over time for all message types and husbands wer e more accurate than wives at decoding positive messages. Accuracy did not predict later relationship satisfaction, but satisfaction predict ed later accuracy, mainly for husbands. Attachment dimensions also pre dicted later accuracy, with Anxiety over abandonment being more relate d to accuracy for husbands, and Comfort with closeness being more rela ted to accuracy for wives. There was evidence of increased communicati on awareness over time for encoders, particularly in terms of the accu racy with which they predicted their spouses decoding. In addition, hu sbands and those high in relationship satisfaction were more likely to expect their partners to decode their communications correctly. With regard to communication awareness for decoders, the main finding was t hat all groups except wives in unhappy marriages were more confident o n correct than incorrect messages.