Symposium 40 - Couples’ Joy and Satisfaction over the Life Cycle: You Can Do This!

Chair(s)

• FL

  Feea Leifker, M.P.H., Ph.D. (she/her/hers)

  University of Utah
  Salt Lake City, Utah

Discussant(s)

• 

  Galena Rhoades, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)

  Research Professor
  University of Denver
  Denver, Colorado

Presenter(s)

• HM

  Howard Markman, Ph.D. (he/him/his)

  John Evans Distinguished Professor of Psychology
  University of Denver
  Denver, CO 80202, Colorado
• DW

  Danielle Weber, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)

  Postdoctoral Research Associate
  University of Georgia
  Durham, North Carolina
• DB

  Donald Baucom, Ph.D.

  Distinguished Professor
  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Chapel Hill, North Carolina
• RR

  Ron Rogge, Ph.D. (he/him/his)

  Associate Professor
  University of Rochester
  Rochester, New York

Most couples enter into a committed relationship filled with joy and anticipation of the future. Whereas for some couples their journey is fraught with difficulties and despair, many couples’ relationships are stable and they thrive. Maintaining or improving relationship well-being likely differs according to the stage of the relationship and the couple’s context. In the current symposium, we explore stage and context in the following ways: (a) how do couples get off to a positive start even while dating; (b) what factors influence young, Black women’s ability  to successfully manage the stressors that arise during the transition to becoming a parent; (c) how do some couples maintain their satisfaction and joy over decades, either consistently or recovering from relationship stressors; and (d) how can couples make low cost efforts with a phone app to increase the positives in their relationships?

First, Howard Markman looks at surveys from over 1,000 Gen Z participants who provided measures of communication quality, negative interaction patterns, levels of commitment, and how much fun they are having in their relationship. Findings demonstrate the centrality of having fun, experiencing a rewarding physical relationship, and handling conflict adaptively in happy relationships. In addition, happier couples also demonstrate more positive individual functioning. Second, Danielle Weber examines the predictors of changes in postpartum relationship satisfaction in a sample of Black, first-time mothers living in the rural Southern U.S. The findings suggest that individual, couple, and contextual/environmental factors are important in relationship resilience. This includes a positive supportive partner relationship, lack of racial discrimination, and positive individual factors such as sleep. Third, Don Baucom presents findings from a cohort of 282 couples in which women partners in Germany with children were followed regularly for 18 years. Findings indicate that approximately half of the mothers reported consistently high levels of satisfaction or reported dips in relationship satisfaction at times before returning to being satisfied. Only 5% stayed together in an unhappy state, while 45% divorced during the course of the study. Individual, relationship, and child correlates of these three relationship trajectories are discussed. Finally, Ron Rogge focuses on the question of how we might help couples across the lifespan increase positives in their daily lives through a phone app, Agapé, that is used by approximately 500,000 people a month.

405 couples were followed across their first month of using Agapé, demonstrating high daily use of the app, and rating it as enjoyable. Partners demonstrated significant improvement on relationship and individual functioning over the month, with greater usage of the app related to greater increases.

Galena Rhoades who has a broad background in enhancing couples’ relationship functioning will serve as the discussant to place the current findings in a broader context and discuss opportunities and challenges in future research to optimize relationship well-being over time.