THE EFFECTS OF MARITAL DISAGREEMENT STYLE, FREQUENCY, AND OUTCOME ON MARITAL DISRUPTION

Studies of the relationship between marital conflict behaviors and mar ital functioning have focused almost exclusively on conflict resolutio n styles to the neglect of other components of marital conflict. The p resent study takes a first step toward addressing this limitation by e xamining the comparative and interactive effects of marital disagreeme nt style, frequency and outcome on the occurrence of marital disruptio n (separation or divorce) over a 3-year period. The study is based on a general population sample of 691 married couples. Results of explora tory factor analysis show that self-reports of frequency, style and ou tcome of marital disagreements share a common underlying structure bes t described as negativity. Logistic regression analysis documents that while each of the components of negativity is a significant predictor of marital disruption, frequency and negativity are more powerful tha n either style or outcome. Multivariate analyses reveal that disruptio n is most powerfully predicted by self-reported negativity among the r ecently married and by self-reported disagreement frequency among the longer married. The report closes with a discussion of the implication s of these results for future research on marital functioning.