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Money Matters in Marriage: Financial Concerns, Warmth, and Hostility Among Military Couples

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Abstract

The effects of military couples’ (N = 219) financial management concerns on marital quality were investigated using an actor-partner interdependence model based on the family stress model. The influence of the mediating role of warm and hostile marital interactions was also investigated after accounting for multiple indicators of the military context, which are usually significant in the lives of military families. Individuals with higher levels of concern about financial management expressed less warmth and more hostility towards their partner. In turn, individuals exhibiting higher levels of warmth had spouses who reported greater marital quality.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are Donald Bruce Ross, M.S., Catherine Walker O’Neal, Ph.D., Amy Laura Arnold, Ph.D., and Jay A. Mancini, Ph.D. of the University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia. The authors acknowledge this manuscript has not been published elsewhere nor has it been simultaneously submitted for publication with another journal.

Funding

This study was supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (NIFA Award No. 2009-48680-06069, Author D, Principal Investigator).

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  1. Family & Community Resilience Laboratory (FCRL), Department of Human Development and Family Science, University of Georgia, 101 Child Development Lab at McPhaul, 202 Carlton St., Athens, GA, 30602-2622, Georgia

    Donald Bruce Ross, Catherine Walker O’Neal, Amy Laura Arnold & Jay A. Mancini

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Correspondence to Donald Bruce Ross.

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All procedures performed in the study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Ross, D.B., O’Neal, C.W., Arnold, A.L. et al. Money Matters in Marriage: Financial Concerns, Warmth, and Hostility Among Military Couples. J Fam Econ Iss 38, 572–581 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-017-9522-y

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