Beyond the Average Marital Communication: Latent Profiles of the Observed Interactions Among Chinese Newlywed Couples

Employing a multicontext observational design, using a person-centered approach, and treating the marital dyad as the unit of analysis, this study examined the within-couple communication patterning of 144 Chinese newlywed couples and its association with relationship satisfaction. Latent profile an...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of family psychology 2015-12, Vol.29 (6), p.850-862
Main Authors: Cao, Hongjian, Fang, Xiaoyi, Fine, Mark A., Ju, Xiaoyan, Lan, Jing, Liu, Xuanwen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Asian people
Attitudes
China
Chinese Cultural Groups
Communication
Couples
Dyads
Female
Human
Humans
Husbands
Interpersonal Communication
Latent class analysis
Male
Marital Relations
Marital satisfaction
Marriage
Marriage - psychology
Married couples
Newlyweds
Person centred approach
Personal Satisfaction
Problem Solving
Relationship Satisfaction
Social interaction
Social Support
Spouses
Spouses - psychology
Wives
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Employing a multicontext observational design, using a person-centered approach, and treating the marital dyad as the unit of analysis, this study examined the within-couple communication patterning of 144 Chinese newlywed couples and its association with relationship satisfaction. Latent profile analysis consistently revealed 3 profiles of spouses' interactive behaviors across contexts differing in both topic nature (i.e., problem-solving vs. social support) and initiator (i.e., husbands vs. wives): (a) traditionally undemonstrative profile, (b) emotionally quarrelling profile, and (c) warmly supportive profile. The prevalence of communication profiles changed markedly with the nature of the discussion topic and the topic initiator. Further, using latent class analysis, we classified couples into subgroups based on their identified profile memberships across contexts (i.e., consistency of interaction mode across contexts). Three classes were identified: (a) consistently quarrelling class, (b) consistently supportive class, and (c) modestly traditional class. Both the consistently supportive class and the modestly traditional class reported significantly higher levels of marital satisfaction than did the consistently quarrelling class.
ISSN:0893-3200
1939-1293
DOI:10.1037/fam0000126