PREDICTING MARITAL HAPPINESS AND STABILITY FROM NEWLYWED INTERACTIONS

A study with 130 newlywed couples was designed to explore marital inte raction processes that are predictive of divorce or marital stability, processes that further discriminate between happily and unhappily mar ried stable couples. We explore seven types of process models: (a) ang er as a dangerous emotion, (b) active listening, (c) negative affect r eciprocity, (d) negative start-lip by the wife, (e) de-escalation, (f) positive affect models, and (g) physiological soothing of the male. S upport was not found for the models of anger as a dangerous emotion, a ctive listening, or negative affect reciprocity. Support was found for models of the husband's rejecting his wife's influence, negative star t-up by the wife, a lack of de-escalation of low intensity negative-wi fe affect by the husband, or a lack of de-escalation of high intensity husband negative affect by the wife, and a lack of physiological soot hing of the male, all predicting divorce. Support was found for a cont ingent positive affect model and for balance models (i.e., ratio model s) of positive-to-negative affect predicting satisfaction among stable couples. Divorce and stability were predicted with 83% accuracy and s atisfaction with 80% accuracy.