PREDICTIVE-VALIDITY OF COPING STRATEGIES ON MARITAL SATISFACTION - CROSS-SECTIONAL AND LONGITUDINAL EVIDENCE

The present study investigated the contribution of coping strategies, when facing marital difficulties, to marital satisfaction, using both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. For the cross-sectional des ign, both members of 506 couples individually completed the Ways of Co ping Questionnaire and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale. Results revealed t hat self-reported coping strategies were significant-linear and curvil inear-predictors of both self-and partner-reported marital satisfactio n. Results of the longitudinal analyses were based on 2 distinct sampl es: 95 couples who completed the same questionnaires 4 months later (s hort-term cohort) and 108 couples who again completed the same questio nnaires 1.5 years later (long-term cohort). Significant, but weak, cur vilinear relations between coping strategies and subsequent marital sa tisfaction were observed for women.