A Two-Dimensional Approach to Relationship Conflict: Meta-Analytic Findings

This meta-analysis of 64 studies (5,071 couples) used a metacoding system to categorize observed couple conflict behaviors into categories differing in terms of valence (positive to negative) and intensity (high to low) and resulting in five behavioral categories: hostility, distress, withdrawal, pr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of family psychology 2011-06, Vol.25 (3), p.325-335
Main Author: WOODIN, Erica M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Conflict
Couple and family
Couples
Distress
Emotions
Family Conflict - psychology
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gender differences
Hostility
Human
Human Sex Differences
Humans
Interpersonal Relations
Intimacy
Magnitude
Male
Meta-analysis
Personal relationships
Personal Satisfaction
Problem Solving
Psychological distress
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Relationship Satisfaction
Sex Factors
Social conflict
Social psychology
Stress, Psychological - etiology
Stress, Psychological - psychology
Systematic review
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Summary:This meta-analysis of 64 studies (5,071 couples) used a metacoding system to categorize observed couple conflict behaviors into categories differing in terms of valence (positive to negative) and intensity (high to low) and resulting in five behavioral categories: hostility, distress, withdrawal, problem solving, and intimacy. Aggregate effect sizes indicated that women were somewhat more likely to display hostility, distress, and intimacy during conflict, whereas men were somewhat more likely to display withdrawal and problem solving. Gender differences were of a small magnitude. For both men and women, hostility was robustly associated with lower relationship satisfaction (medium effect), distress and withdrawal were somewhat associated (small effect), and intimacy and problem solving were both closely associated with relationship satisfaction (medium effect). Effect sizes were moderated in several cases by study characteristics including year of publication, developmental period of the sample, recruitment design, duration of observed conflict, method used to induce conflict, and type of coding system used. Findings from this meta-analysis suggest that high-intensity conflict behaviors of both a positive and negative nature are important correlates of relationship satisfaction and underscore the relatively small gender differences in many conflict behaviors.
ISSN:0893-3200
1939-1293
DOI:10.1037/a0023791