Communication, conflict, and psychological distance in nondistressed, clinic, and divorcing couples.

TLDR

The authors compared communication patterns and psychological‑distance conflicts across 25 nondistressed, 15 clinic, and 22 divorcing couples using independent questionnaire reports from husbands and wives. Distressed couples showed reduced constructive communication, increased avoidance, demand/withdraw exchanges, and heightened conflict over psychological distance, with divorcing couples exhibiting the lowest constructive communication and a trend toward more conflict than clinic couples, findings interpreted through skills‑deficit and incompatibility models.

Abstract

This study compared communication patterns and conflicts over psychological distance in 25 nondistressed couples, 15 clinic couples, and 22 divorcing couples. Data consisted of questionnaire reports completed independently by husbands and wives. The two distressed groups, compared with nondistressed couples, had less mutual constructive communication, more avoidance of communication, more demand/withdraw communication, and more conflict over psychological distance in their relationships. In addition, the divorcing group had less mutual constructive communication than the clinic group and evidenced a trend for more conflict over psychological distance than the clinic group. Consistent with past research, wife demand/husband withdraw communication was more likely across all groups than husband demand/wife withdraw communication. Results are discussed in terms of skills deficits and incompatability models of marital discord.