SOCIAL SUPPORT, CONFLICT, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF MARITAL DYSFUNCTION

Holy spouses help each other contend with personal difficulties is an unexplored but potentially important domain for understanding how mari tal distress develops. Newly married couples participated in 2 interac tion tasks: a problem-solving task in which spouses discussed a marita l conflict and a social support task in which spouses discussed person al, nonmarital difficulties. Observational coding of these interaction s showed that wives' support solicitation and provision behaviors pred icted marital outcomes 2 years later independent of negative behaviors during marital problem-solving discussions. In addition, couples who exhibited relatively poor skills in both behavioral domains were at pa rticular risk for later marital dysfunction. These results suggest tha t social support exchanges should be incorporated into social learning analyses of marriage and into programs designed to prevent marital di stress.