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The current study examined whether directly altering affective associations involving a relationship partner through evaluative conditioning can lead to changes in relationship satisfaction. Married couples (N = 144) were asked to view a brief stream of images once every 3 days for 6 weeks. Embedded in this stream were pictures of the partner, which, according to random assignment of couples to experimental group, were paired with either positive or neutral stimuli. Couples also completed measures of automatic partner attitudes and explicit marital satisfaction at baseline and once every 2 weeks for 8 weeks. Spouses who viewed their partners paired with positive stimuli demonstrated more-positive automatic partner attitudes than did control spouses, and these attitudes predicted increased self-reported marital satisfaction over time. These results provide novel evidence for a mechanism of change in relationship satisfaction, represent a step toward documenting how strong attitudes can evolve through passive exposure to information, and suggest novel avenues for relationship interventions.

Sexuality research focuses almost exclusively on individuals rather than couples, though ongoing relationships are very important for most people and cultures. The present study was the first to examine sexual and relationship parameters of middle-aged and older couples in committed relationships of 1–51 years duration. Survey research was conducted in Brazil, Germany, Japan, Spain, and the U.S. targeting 200 men aged 40–70 and their female partners in each country, with 1,009 couples in the final sample. Key demographic, health, physical intimacy, sexual behavior, sexual function, and sexual history variables were used to model relationship happiness and sexual satisfaction. The median ages were 55 for men and 52 for women; median relationship duration was 25 years. Relationship satisfaction in men depended on health, physical intimacy, and sexual functioning, while in women only sexual functioning predicted relationship satisfaction. Models predicting sexual satisfaction included significant physical intimacy and sexual functioning for both genders and, for men, more frequent recent sexual activity and fewer lifetime partners. Longer relationship duration predicted greater relationship happiness and sexual satisfaction for men. However, women in relationships of 20 to 40 years were significantly less likely than men to report relationship happiness. Compared to men, women showed lower sexual satisfaction early in the relationship and greater sexual satisfaction later. Within the long-term committed relationship context, there were significant gender differences in correlates of sexual and relationship satisfaction, with sexual functioning a common predictor of both types of satisfaction and physical intimacy a more consistent and salient predictor for men.

The quality of the interparental relationship bears important implications for children’s socioemotional development. Given evidence that relationship satisfaction among parents tends to decline over time this study examined how change in parents’ relationship satisfaction from nine-months-old until nine-years-old related to children’s socioemotional difficulties at nine-years-old. Participants were 2074 mothers, fathers, and their child (55.1% male) recruited through random sampling of the Child Benefit Registrar by Growing Up in Ireland cohort study. Mothers ranged in age from 18 to 40 years ( M  = 31.06, SD = 4.70) and fathers ranged in age from 18 to 60 years ( M  = 33.50, SD = 5.54). Mothers and fathers completed the Dyadic Adjustment Scale at nine-months-old and at nine-years-old whereas child socioemotional development was assessed via teacher report on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire at nine-years-old. Residualised change analysis indicated that both parents experienced declines in relationship satisfaction from nine-months-old until nine- years-old. However, in families where initial levels of relationship satisfaction were high, there was no significant association between decline in satisfaction and child socioemotional difficulties. Conversely, in couples where initial levels of satisfaction were low, mothers, but not fathers, who experienced further declines had female, but not male, children with more socioemotional difficulties at nine years ( β  = −0.22, p  = 0.01; R 2  = 0.15, F = 2.31, p  = 0.02). These findings highlight the need for carefully tailored interventions aimed at promoting couple relationship satisfaction during transition to parenthood such that the negative impact on children of any decline experienced over time can be mitigated. Highlights Mothers and fathers experienced declines in relationship satisfaction from nine months until nine years. Among parents with high baseline levels of relationship satisfaction there was no association between decline in satisfaction from nine months until nine years and child socioemotional outcomes at nine years. Among parents with low baseline levels of relationship satisfaction, mothers’, but not fathers’ experience of further decline was negatively associated with total socioemotional difficulties in female, but not male, children. There is need for tailored interventions to promote couple relationship satisfaction during transition to parenthood such that the negative impact on children of any decline experienced over time can be mitigated.

Research on the well-being at school of children living in a bilingual family language context are not very numerous. The cultural, social, and emotional challenges that their schooling implies can be complex, in particular when the family language is minorated and thus not much valued socially. The many available studies on immigrant children are generally not confronted with the problem of speaking different languages at home and at school. The present cross-sectional study was conducted with 216 children aged 10 attending school in France, and living in a monolingual family French language context ( n  = 103) or in a bilingual family language context with a minorated language ( n  = 113). It aims at comparing these two groups of students with regard to various dimensions of their subjective well-being at school (global satisfaction with school, satisfaction with teachers and with peers) and the relationship between these dimensions. The results of the comparative and moderation analyses indicate that the two groups do not differ with regard to global school satisfaction and satisfaction with peers. However, children who live in a bilingual family language context feel less supported by their teacher even though this support contributes more significantly to their global school satisfaction. These results suggest the necessity to raise teachers’ awareness of the educational needs of students who hear and use at home a different language than that of instruction to have a better relationship with them and fulfil their needs. They also encourage the fostering of an efficient communication between school and home.

Numerous studies have established that new parents, on average, experience declines in relationship satisfaction, yet many sources suggest not all parents experience the transition to parenthood in the same way. The authors argue that new parents experience changes in relationship satisfaction in heterogeneous patterns, with only subgroups demonstrating steep declines. Furthermore, on the basis of the Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation model, they examined actor and partner prenatal risk factors for experiencing different patterns of change. Among a sample of 206 new parents, they found the majority of mothers (79.4%) and about half of fathers (51.0%) experienced only moderate amounts of change, whereas smaller subgroups demonstrated steep declines. Results from analyses of the predictors of subgroup membership supported interdependence theory, because it was almost exclusively partner risk factors that predicted subgroup membership. Specifically, paternal positive support and anxiety predicted maternal subgroup membership and paternal positive support, maternal self-esteem, and maternal daily stress predicted paternal subgroup membership.

Previous studies have found associations between the individual discrepancy of desired sexual frequency and actual sexual frequency and relational outcomes among premarital couples. The present study extended this research by using a sample of 1,054 married couples to explore how actor and partner individual sexual desire discrepancy (SDD) scores were associated with relationship satisfaction, stability, communication, and conflict during marriage. All participants took an online survey which assessed both couple sexual dynamics and relationship outcomes. Findings suggested that higher actor individual SDD was generally associated with negative relational outcomes, including lower reported relationship satisfaction, stability, and more reported couple conflict. These effects were found after controlling for background factors, baseline sexual frequency and desire, and couple desire discrepancies. Some partner effects were also found and were generally in the same direction. Marital length did not moderate the effects found although gender moderated associations between individual SDD and reported couple communication. Negative associations between individual SDD and communication were particularly strong when the husband reported high discrepancies between desired and actual sexual frequency. Results suggested that higher individual sexual desire discrepancies among married individuals may undermine relationship well-being. Applications of these findings to a clinical setting are also discussed.

Using Netherlands Kinship Panel Study dyadic couple data (n = 3,117), the authors investigated associations between partner dissimilarity in the socioeconomic and companionate domains and couples' well-being. They distinguished between 2 well-being indicators—life satisfaction and relationship satisfaction—assuming both indicators to be differentially related to the 2 life domains. They investigated whether Becker's (1973) hypothesis of the \"efficiency\" gains of household specialization has a sociological pendant in a link between specialization and well-being gains and found that greater socioeconomic dissimilarity was associated with lower life satisfaction for both partners. Although the authors expected dissimilarity in the companionate domain to be associated with lower relationship satisfaction, such an association was found only for family traditionalism: Partners less similar in this respect were less satisfied with their relationship. As assumed, life satisfaction was more strongly associated with dissimilarity in the socioeconomic domain, whereas relationship satisfaction was most affected by the companionate domain.

There is a demonstrated relationship between couples' division of household chores-and, to a lesser extent, the division of shared expenses-and their relationship quality. Less is known, however, about whether and how individuals' perceived fairness of these arrangements is associated with couples' relationships in different ways. Using a gendered equity framework, and drawing on 10,236 responses collected via an online national news website, this study examines how equity evaluations of housework and shared expenses are related to relationship satisfaction and sex frequency among different-gender household partners. Consistent with previous findings, the results indicate that evaluations of unfairness to oneself are a stronger predictor of relationship quality than perceived unfairness to one's partner. Additionally, fairness evaluations over shared expenses are a stronger predictor of relationship quality than perceived equity in housework. Incorporating notions about traditional gender norms and expectations into the justice framework, the results point to some variation in relationship outcomes based on men's and women's differential equity evaluations.

The Dyadic-Familial Relationship Satisfaction Scale (DFRSS) is a valid and reliable instrument to assess dyadic and familial dimensions of relationship satisfaction in cohabitant couples with children. The main goal of this research was to validate the Spanish version of the DFRSS (Sp-DFRSS) following the guidelines for cross-cultural adaptations. Three studies were conducted. In Study 1 ( n  = 151), an exploratory factor analysis using principal axis factoring and oblimin rotation was performed to examine the factor structure of the Sp-DFRSS. In Study 2 ( n  = 500), a confirmatory factor analysis showed that a two factor model (dyadic and familial) provided the best fit to the data. In Study 3 ( n  = 100), we examined relationship satisfaction using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model. The Sp-DFRSS as a whole and its subscales presented adequate reliability in the three studies, with Cronbach’s alphas ranging from 0.87 to 0.95. Moreover, convergent and divergent validity of the Sp-DFRSS was analyzed in Studies 1, 2 and 3, and significant correlations between the Sp-DFRSS’ subscales, life satisfaction, negative and positive affect, attachment (anxiety and avoidance), and psychological well-being were found. The Sp-DFRSS has good psychometric properties in terms of validity and reliability, so that it may be used by the Spanish-speaking scientific community to measure relationship satisfaction.