Premium
Linking financial distress to marital quality: The intermediary roles of demand/withdraw and spousal gratitude expressions
Author(s) -
BARTON ALLEN W.,
FUTRIS TED G.,
NIELSEN ROBERT B.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
personal relationships
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.81
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1475-6811
pISSN - 1350-4126
DOI - 10.1111/pere.12094
Subject(s) - gratitude , mediation , psychology , distress , quality (philosophy) , spouse , financial distress , social psychology , clinical psychology , business , financial system , sociology , philosophy , epistemology , social science , anthropology
This study investigates demand/withdraw communication and spousal expressions of gratitude as intervening variables in the association between financial distress and marital quality. With a sample of 468 married individuals, dual‐mediation models revealed demand/withdraw transmitted the effect of financial distress onto 3 different marital outcomes; in most instances, this indirect effect occurred through total couple demand/withdraw and not one spouse‐specific pattern. In moderated mediation models, spousal gratitude exerted main effects on all marital outcomes and, for a subset of outcomes, protective effects for couples with high levels of demand/withdraw. Results elucidate how demand/withdraw patterns link financial distress to marital outcomes and highlight spousal gratitude expressions as a promising, yet understudied, process within couples that promotes and protects marital quality.