Till violence does us part: The differing roles of communication and aggression in predicting adverse marital outcomes

Measures of communication and aggression, taken from 56 newlywed couples, w ere used to predict marital outcomes 4 years later. Aggression discriminate d between separated or divorced couples and those who remained married. In contrast, communication discriminated between couples who were maritally sa tisfied after 4 years and those who were married but dissatisfied. Thus, ov er the Ist 4 years of marriage, marital satisfaction and dissolution appear to be predicted by separate factors. These results remained unchanged afte r controlling for initial marital satisfaction. Additional analyses showed that 68% of the marriages could be accurately classified into their outcome groups using communication and aggression variables. These results help to integrate prior marital research on communication and aggression, and they suggest that it may be necessary to focus on both factors in efforts to st rengthen marriages and prevent divorce.