Attachment and Relationship Satisfaction as Moderators of the Relationship Between Female Repair Attempt Behavior and Couple Emotional Flexibility During Marital Conflict

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine husbands� and wives� reports of attachment-related anxiety, attachment-related avoidance, and relationship satisfaction as moderators of the relationship between wives� self-reported repair attempt behaviors and couples� emotional flexibility during conversations regarding past hurts in their relationships. Participants consisted of 23 couples between 20 and 60 years of age who had been married no less than six months and were within their first marriage. Couples completed measures of relationship satisfaction, repair attempt behaviors, and attachment, followed by discussing past hurts in their marriages. Partners then reported continuous affect responses while watching a video of their discussions regarding past hurts, which revealed their levels of emotional flexibility during these difficult conversations. A series of hierarchical regression analyses were used to determine influential trends of moderation. Though analyses yielded non-significant results, findings revealed that the husbands� reports had an overall greater moderating impact than the wives� reports, and that husbands� satisfaction exerted a substantially greater predictive influence on the relationship between wives� self-reported repairing behaviors and couples� emotional flexibility when discussing past hurts than other variables. Clinical implications for couples� therapy and recommendations for future research on repair attempts and positive sentiment override are discussed.