Exploratory Study Marital Interdependence and Social Networks

Abstract

In an exploratory study of 25 wives and their husbands we examine the associations of spouses with kin and friends as predictors of four marital qualities: love, maintenance, conflict and ambivalence. For husbands, contact with kin, and especially fathers, is tied to greater marital interdependence and lower conflict. For wives, contact with kin, and especially brothers-in-law, is consistently associated with greater marital distress in the form of lower love for her husband and reports of greater conflict and ambivalence on the part of both spouses. Husbands also report greater conflict and ambivalence when their wives interact frequently with friends. Overall, the findings suggest the effects of kin are heterogeneous, varying substantially by the type of role relation, and that the processes underlying relations with kin are distinctly different for wives and husbands.