The importance of relationship maintenance in marriage at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

The theory of resilience and relational load (TRRL) was used to understand the disparate impact of COVID-19 on married individuals. We hypothesized that women and people of color would experience greater stress, more conflict with their marital partners, and express more anger over time due to the increased financial hardship and additional stressors of work-family life during COVID-19. Married individuals (N = 3601 at T1) completed online surveys at four time points from April to June 2020. We found few sex and racial differences. Across all groups, financial hardship at T1 was positively associated with stress the following month, which predicted conflict and anger expression over time. Moreover, relationship maintenance counteracted the effect of financial hardship on stress, conflict, and anger.

KEYWORDS:

• Theory of resilience and relational load (TRRL)
• relationship maintenance
• conflict
• anger expression
• stress
• marriage

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contribution

Chantel N. Haughton is now at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN. Allison P. Mazur is a doctoral candidate at University of California, Santa Barbara, where Tamara D. Afifi and Walid A. Afifi are also professors. Chantel N. Haughton was a doctoral candidate at University of California, Santa Barbara when the manuscript was prepared, and is now an assistant professor at Purdue University.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this study was secured by the second and third authors from the University of California, Santa Barbara.