Research on the nature and determinants of marital satisfaction: A decade in review

Scientific study of marital satisfaction attracted widespread attention in the 1990s from scholars representing diverse orientations and goals. This a rticle highlights key conceptual and empirical advances that have emerged i n the past decade, with particular emphasis on (a) interpersonal processes that operate within marriage, including cognition, affect, physiology, beha vioral patterning, social support, and violence; (b) the milieus within whi ch marriages operate, including micro-contexts (e.g., the presence of child ren, life stressors and transitions) and macrocontexts (e.g., economic fact ors, perceived mate availability); and (c) the conceptualization and measur ement of marital satisfaction, including 2-dimensional, trajectory-based, a nd social-cognitive approaches. Notwithstanding the continued need for theo retical progress in understanding the nature and determinants of marital sa tisfaction, we conclude by calling for more large-scale longitudinal resear ch that links marital processes with sociocultural contexts, for move disco nfirmatory than confirmatory research, and for research that directly guide s preventive, clinical, and policy-level interventions.