Jp. Caughlin et Al. Vangelisti, Desire for change in one's partner as a predictor of the demand/withdraw pattern of marital communication, COMM MONOGR, 66(1), 1999, pp. 66-89
Even though the demand/withdraw pattern of marital communication has been i
mplicated as a contributor to marital dissatisfaction and divorce, relative
ly little research has examined why couples engage in demand/withdraw. Why
would individuals engage in this seemingly negative communication pattern ?
To investigate this issue, a study of married couples was conducted in whi
ch the association between spouses' desire for change in their partner and
couples' demand/withdraw communication was examined The results indicated t
hat individuals' desire for change in their partner was positively related
to both husband demand/wife withdraw communication and wife demand/husband
withdraw communication. This suggested that spouses' desire for change was
associated with them enacting both demanding and withdrawing communication.
The link between desire for change and demand/withdraw seemed particularly
strong for topics that were salient to the participants, The results imply
that no current model of demand/withdraw sufficiently explains why this co
mmunication pattern occurs. Suggestions for a more complete explanation of
the demand/withdraw pattern are discussed.