Stress in Childhood and Adulthood: Effects on Marital Quality Over Time

2005/11/21 by Debra Umberson, Kristi Williams, Daniel A. Powers +3 · 15 citations
Social Sciences · Psychology · #Family Dynamics and Relationships #Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving #Attachment and Relationship Dynamics

paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2005.00220.x

Abstract

We work from a stress and life course perspective to consider how stress affects trajectories of change in marital quality over time. Specifically, we ask whether stress is more likely to undermine the quality of marital experiences at different points in the life course. In addition, we ask whether the effects of adult stress on marital quality depend on childhood family stress experiences. Growth curve analysis of data from a national longitudinal survey (Americans' Changing Lives, N = 1,059 married individuals) reveals no evidence of age differences in the effects of adult stress on subsequent trajectories of change in marital experiences. Our results, however, suggest that the effects of adult stress on marital quality may depend on childhood stress exposure. Stress in adulthood appears to take a cumulative toll on marriage over time-but this toll is paid primarily by individuals who report a more stressful childhood. This toll does not depend on the timing of stress in the adult life course.

Citations

• The Forms and Mechanisms of Stress Proliferation: The Case of AIDS Caregivers
• Sample Selection Bias as a Specification Error

Cited by

• Just the Two of Us? How Parents Influence Adult Children's Marital Quality. [europepmc]
• Aging and Family Life: A Decade Review. [europepmc]
• Overlapping genetic and environmental influences among men's alcohol consumption and problems, romantic quality and social support. [europepmc]
• Gender, stress in childhood and adulthood, and trajectories of change in body mass. [europepmc]
• Do cherished children age successfully? Longitudinal findings from the Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Study. [europepmc]
• Financial strain, trajectories of marital processes, and African American newlyweds' marital instability. [europepmc]
• Transgenerational aspects of former Swiss child laborers: do second generations suffer from their parents' adverse early-life experiences? [europepmc]
• Childhood Adversity, Daily Stress, and Marital Strain in Same-Sex and Different-Sex Marriages. [europepmc]
• The Family Health Scale: Reliability and Validity of a Short- and Long-Form. [europepmc]
• Vocational rehabilitation to enhance return to work after trauma (ROWTATE): protocol for a non-randomised single-arm mixed-methods feasibility study. [europepmc]
• Adverse Childhood Experiences and Depressive Symptoms among Young Adult Hispanic Immigrants: Moderating and Mediating Effects of Distinct Facets of Acculturation Stress. [europepmc]
• Childhood Adversities and Unmet Needs of Older Chinese Adults: The Mediation Effects of Family Relationships. [europepmc]
• Childhood Stressors, Relationship Quality, and Cognitive Health in Later Life. [europepmc]
• Marital Stress and Emotion Work in Same-Sex and Different-Sex Marriages: The Moderating Role of Childhood Adversity. [europepmc]
• Adverse childhood experiences and fertility intention among college students in China: moderated mediation effects of resilience and attachment. [europepmc]

Related

• As Good as it Gets? A Life Course Perspective on Marital Quality
• Marital Biography and Health at Mid-Life
• Partner strain and support associations with affective reactions to daily stressors
• Marriage and health: exploring the role of stress overload
• Marital stability throughout the child-rearing years