ABSTRACT This study investigates the joint developmental trajectories of financial behaviors, their predictors, and outcomes within the first decade of marriage. We used Waves 2–7 (six waves) of dyadic data from 1505 different‐gender couples. Growth curve analyses showed that healthy financial behaviors continued to increase but began declining between Wave 5 (April 2021–December 2021) and Wave 6 (April 2022–December 2022), coinciding with economic challenges at the time. Latent profile analyses identified three subgroups: “moderate momenta with fades” (P1, 40.3%), “peaking and ebbing” (P2, 36.3%), and “stalling in shallows” (P3, 23.5%). P1 and P2 were associated with higher relational commitment than P3. Socioeconomic inequalities were the key predictors. Higher education and household income were associated with higher likelihoods of the more adaptive P1 and P2 (compared to P3). Wives' longer working hours and husbands' prior marriage were linked to a lower likelihood of P2 than P3. P2 was more likely (than P1) when household income and wives' education were higher, but less likely when wives worked longer hours or husbands had a prior marriage. Our study advances family finance research by demonstrating how couples' financial behaviors co‐evolve and highlights the urgent need for financial interventions, particularly among socioeconomically marginalized populations.
ABSTRACT Forgiveness is a critical factor in marital stability and satisfaction, particularly within religiously diverse societies where interpretations of relational offenses may differ. This study assessed the measurement invariance of the Marital Offense‐Specific Forgiveness Scale (MOFS) across Muslim and Christian adults in Germany. A total of 935 participants (287 Muslims, 648 Christians) were recruited from Catholic and Muslim congregations in Germany through convenience sampling. Multi‐group confirmatory factor analysis supported the two‐factor structure of the MOFS—Benevolence and Resentment/Avoidance—and demonstrated configural, metric, and partial scalar invariance, enabling meaningful cross‐group comparisons. Full scalar and residual invariance were not established. Latent mean analyses revealed significantly higher resentment/avoidance among Christian participants, with no significant group differences in Benevolence. These findings support the cross‐religious validity of the MOFS and underscore the role of cultural and religious contexts in shaping emotional responses to marital offenses. Clinical implications for interventions with interfaith couples are discussed, and future research directions include the exploration of additional cultural factors and the use of longitudinal designs.
Financial stress can strain romantic relations through stress spillover (affecting oneself) and crossover (affecting one's partner). This study investigated how financial stress influences relationship stress and the role of dyadic coping strategies. Eighty-four unmarried US couples (N = 168 respondents) completed a one-time baseline assessment and a 7-day daily diary reporting financial stress, relationship stress, and perceived dyadic coping. Multilevel modeling showed financial stress significantly predicted both one's own and one's partner's relationship stress at baseline. Emotion-focused dyadic coping (providing support, reassurance) buffered this association, whereas problem-focused coping had no buffering effect and may even worsen stress spillover. Daily analyses revealed that financial stress and relationship stress covary over time, especially for couples with high baseline relationship stress. These findings underscore the protective role of emotion-focused dyadic coping in managing immediate relational strain due to financial stress, suggesting the need for targeted interventions to foster relationship resilience in financially vulnerable couples.
Social connectedness-an issue important to individuals, researchers, and clinicians-has been increasingly included in public policy as an antidote to ill-being. Social connection can be gained through friendships; however, not all friendships are alike, and some may be better suited for accommodating mental health challenges. Thus, the impact of disorders such as anxiety and depression may differentially relate to satisfaction with different types of friendships. In the current study (N = 1627), adults self-reported anxiety, depression, psychological variables of interest, and satisfaction with three different types of friendships: intimacy with a best friend, closeness within their network of friends, and socializing within their network of friends. We systematically tested the effects of anxiety and depression separately, additively, interactively, and nonlinearly on the three different friendship dimensions, after controlling for psychological variables that may also contribute to the association. Our hypotheses stating that anxiety and depression would predict greater friendship quality as varied by the level of intimacy characterized within each friendship dimension were supported. This research suggests that the most intimate relationships with best friends may be particularly well-suited for weathering challenges.
Prior research has mostly focused on the role of negative interpersonal processes in the association between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and depression. However, disruptions of positive interpersonal experiences may also be important. ACEs may reduce capitalization, the process of sharing good news with others, which contributes to experiencing closeness in relationships. This study examined whether capitalization and relationship closeness mediate the association between ACEs and depressive symptoms, over and above relationship stress, and whether these associations are amplified in a chronic stress context. Participants were 222 middle-aged mothers experiencing varying degrees of chronic caregiving stress who reported on ACEs at baseline, and depressive symptoms as well as interpersonal processes at three time points over 30 months. Between-person analyses of data aggregated across days and waves showed that higher ACEs were associated with lower capitalization, lower relationship closeness, and greater relationship stress. Relationship closeness and stress were associated with greater depressive symptoms, and a significant serial pathway emerged from ACEs to depressive symptoms via capitalization and relationship closeness. Caregiving stress amplified the association between ACEs and relationship stress. Findings suggest that ACEs may contribute to depressive symptoms in midlife through diminished positive interpersonal processes, independently of relationship stress and caregiving demands.
