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Relationship characteristics of couples married thirty years or more: A four-sample replication

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Abstract

A secondary analysis of four samples from earlier studies was used to test two hypotheses concerning long-term marriages. First, it was hypothesized that couples from marriages of 30 years or more duration would be characterized by higher levels of relationship quality, with the overall pattern between duration of marriage and relationship quality being curvilinear; across four samples of husbands and wives, only weak support was found for this hypothesis. A second hypothesis, that elements of intrinsic communication including positive regard, empathy, and congruence would be less important for couples from older marriages, received no support. Thus, it appears that relatively intrinsic components of the marital relationship are just as important currently for older couples as they are for younger couples, in spite of popular opinion to the contrary.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kansas State University, USA

    Janette M. Copeland, Margaret A. Bugaighis &  Walter R. Schumm

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  1. Janette M. Copeland
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  2. Margaret A. Bugaighis
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  3. Walter R. Schumm
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Additional information

The preparation of this paper was supported in part by the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Contribution No. 84-516-J. Janette M. Copeland and Margaret A. Bugaighis are doctoral students, and Walter R. Schumm is an associate professor in the Department of Family and Child Development, College of Home Economics, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas 66506.

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Copeland, J.M., Bugaighis, M.A. & Schumm, W.R. Relationship characteristics of couples married thirty years or more: A four-sample replication. J Fam Econ Iss 7, 107–114 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00981912

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00981912

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