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Genetic and Environmental Influences on Marital Relationships

Spotts, Erica L. ; Neiderhiser, Jenae M. ; Towers, Hilary ; Hansson, Kjell LU ; Lichtenstein, Paul ; Cederblad, Marianne LU ; Pedersen, Nancy L. and Reiss, David (2004) In Journal of Family Psychology 18(1). p.107-119
Abstract
As most adults will marry at least once during their lifetime, studying marital quality and its predictors is of great importance. The current study addresses (a) the extent of agreement between husbands and wives on their marital quality, (b) genetic and environmental sources of individual differences on spouse reports of marital quality, and (c) the extent to which genetic and environmental influences account for overlap of spouse reports on marital quality. Adult Swedish twin women and their partners participated in this study. Genotype-environment (GE) correlations were found for marital quality, suggesting that wives' genetically influenced characteristics set a tone for the marriage. Wives' genetically influenced characteristics also... (More)
As most adults will marry at least once during their lifetime, studying marital quality and its predictors is of great importance. The current study addresses (a) the extent of agreement between husbands and wives on their marital quality, (b) genetic and environmental sources of individual differences on spouse reports of marital quality, and (c) the extent to which genetic and environmental influences account for overlap of spouse reports on marital quality. Adult Swedish twin women and their partners participated in this study. Genotype-environment (GE) correlations were found for marital quality, suggesting that wives' genetically influenced characteristics set a tone for the marriage. Wives' genetically influenced characteristics also accounted for overlap of spouse reports of marital quality. Finally, nonshared environmental influences were the primary contributor to both individual reports and the overlap of spouse reports, an interesting deviation from findings of behavior genetic studies of other types of relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved) (Less)
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author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Journal of Family Psychology
volume
18
issue
1
pages
107 - 119
publisher
American Psychological Association (APA)
external identifiers
  • wos:000220039000010
  • pmid:14992614
  • scopus:1642281545
ISSN
0893-3200
DOI
10.1037/0893-3200.18.1.107
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
17b9de8f-0eb6-49fc-9876-00960dba59f6 (old id 154285)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 16:43:25
date last changed
2022-01-28 21:39:32
@article{17b9de8f-0eb6-49fc-9876-00960dba59f6,
  abstract     = {{As most adults will marry at least once during their lifetime, studying marital quality and its predictors is of great importance. The current study addresses (a) the extent of agreement between husbands and wives on their marital quality, (b) genetic and environmental sources of individual differences on spouse reports of marital quality, and (c) the extent to which genetic and environmental influences account for overlap of spouse reports on marital quality. Adult Swedish twin women and their partners participated in this study. Genotype-environment (GE) correlations were found for marital quality, suggesting that wives' genetically influenced characteristics set a tone for the marriage. Wives' genetically influenced characteristics also accounted for overlap of spouse reports of marital quality. Finally, nonshared environmental influences were the primary contributor to both individual reports and the overlap of spouse reports, an interesting deviation from findings of behavior genetic studies of other types of relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved)}},
  author       = {{Spotts, Erica L. and Neiderhiser, Jenae M. and Towers, Hilary and Hansson, Kjell and Lichtenstein, Paul and Cederblad, Marianne and Pedersen, Nancy L. and Reiss, David}},
  issn         = {{0893-3200}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{107--119}},
  publisher    = {{American Psychological Association (APA)}},
  series       = {{Journal of Family Psychology}},
  title        = {{Genetic and Environmental Influences on Marital Relationships}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0893-3200.18.1.107}},
  doi          = {{10.1037/0893-3200.18.1.107}},
  volume       = {{18}},
  year         = {{2004}},
}