Marital Satisfaction: Positive Regard Versus Effective Communications as Explanatory Variables

Summary

A substantial association between marital communication and marital satisfaction has been demonstrated in much previous research. However, previous research has overlooked the possibility that positive regard might be able to explain much of that association. Using two samples from Kansas of 83 and 98 predominately white, middle-class couples, we compared the effects of partialling regard from the marital communication/marital satisfaction relationship with the effects of partialling communication variables from the regard/marital satisfaction relationship. Our results, which do not appear to be an artifact of marital social desirability, indicated that marital communication variables (empathy, congruence) do not explain variations in marital satisfaction as effectively as does positive regard. Thus, we infer that previous research may have overstated the importance of effective communication as an element of marital quality. Implications for the design of marital enrichment programs are also discussed.