Premarital Prediction of Marital Quality or Breakup: Research, Theory, and Practice (Longitudinal Research in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: An Interdisciplinary Series)

This book should be of interest to scholars, researchers, students, and practitioners alike. Scholars, researchers, and students of personal relationship development will recognize in this book the first serious attempt in over 40 years to do a large-scale, longitudinal study of premarital factors that predict premarital breakup and marital quality; they should also appreciate our attempt to develop a theoretical rationale for predicted paths and to test those paths with the best available statistical tools. Practitioners-while generally not as interested in the intricacies of the statistical results-will find much that is useful to them as they help individuals and couples make decisions about their intimate relationships, their readiness for marriage, and how to increase the probability for marital success. Teachers, family life educators, premarital counselors, and clergy will find helpful our “principles for practice,” particularly as described in Chapter 9, as they teach and counsel couples in any premarital situation. My interest in the development of relationships from premarital to marital probably began when I got married in 1972 and started to notice all of the characteristics my wife and I brought from our respective families and how our “new beginning” as a married couple was in many ways the continuation of our premarital relationship, only more refined and more intense. My professional interest began when I did my doctoral dissertation in 198 1 on premarital predictors of early marital satisfaction (the results of that study are reported in Chapter 8). CONTENT: 1. Premarital Factors and Later Marital Quality and Stability; T.B. Holman, S.T. Linford. 2. Assumptions and Methods; T.B. Holman, S.T. Linford. 3. Breaking up Before And After Marriage; D.B. Meredith, T.B. Holman. 4. Family of Origin Structures and Processes and Adult Children's Marital Quality; T.B. Holman, P.J. Birch. 5. Individual Characteristics Influencing Marital Quality; T.B. Holman, et al. 6. Social Contexts Influencing Marital Quality; C. Doxey, T.B. Holman. 7. Premarital Couple Interactional Processes and Later Marital Quality; J.S. Carroll, T.B. Holman. 8. Putting it All Together: Four Longitudinal, Multivariate Models of Premarital Prediction of Marital Quality; T.B. Holman, et al. 9. General Principles, Implications, and Future Directions; T.B. Holman, et al. 10. Epilogue and Invitation; T.B. Holman. Appendix A: PREParation for Marriage (PREP-M); T.B. Holman, et al. Appendix B: The Relationship Quality Follow-up Study; T.B. Holman, S.T. Linford. Appendix C: A Century-end Comprehensive Review of Premarital Predictors of Marital Quality and Stability; S.T. Linford, J.S. Carroll Premarital Factors and Later Marital Quality and Stability....Pages 1-27 Assumptions and Methods....Pages 29-45 Breaking Up before and after Marriage....Pages 47-77 Family-of-origin Structures and Processes and Adult Children’s Marital Quality....Pages 79-103 Individual Characteristics Influencing Marital Quality....Pages 105-117 Social Contexts Influencing Marital Quality....Pages 119-139 Premarital Couple Interactional Processes and Later Marital Quality....Pages 141-163 Putting it all Together: Four Longitudinal, Multivariate Models of Premarital Prediction of Marital Quality....Pages 165-189 General Principles, Implications, and Future Directions....Pages 191-222 Epilogue and Invitation....Pages 223-232 This book represents the first serious attempt in more than forty years to carry out a large-scale longitudinal study of premarital factors that predict breakup and marital quality. The author develops a theoretical rationale for predicted paths and tests those paths with the best statistical tools; practitioners will find the results useful in their attempts to help individuals and couples make decisions about marriage, marital stability, and childrearing This text represents a serious attempt to carry out a large-scale longitudinal study of pre-marital factors that predict breakup and marital quality. The author develops a theoretical rationale for predicted paths and tests those paths with the best statistical tools. Practitioners should find the results useful in their attempts to help individuals and couples make decisions about marriage, marital stability and childrearing Presents the study of premarital factors that predict breakup and marital quality. This book develops a theoretical rationale for predicted paths and tests those paths with the best statistical tools. It is useful to practitioners in their attempts to help individuals and couples make decisions about marriage, marital stability, and childrearing.