Abstract

Negative communication behaviors that occur prior to marriage often continue into marriage without proper intervention (i.e. marriage counseling). One such communication behavior is the serial argument (i.e. an argument that occurs and reoccurs over time). The topics that married couples argue about offer a unique insight to the health of one's relationship. The present study examined differences between 124 individuals, 93 who cohabited with their spouse prior to marriage and 31 who did not, in both the topics and frequency of serial arguments and overall martial satisfaction. The results indicated that there was no difference in frequency (number of topics, within each topic, overall frequency) of serial arguments between both groups. However, individuals who did not live with their spouse prior to marriage experienced lower levels of marital satisfaction when engaged in conflict regarding certain topics than did premarital cohabiters.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2016

Semester

Spring

Advisor

Weger, Harry

Degree

Master of Arts (M.A.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Communication

Degree Program

Communication; Interpersonal Communications

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0006167

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0006167

Language

English

Release Date

May 2016

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

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