Predicting the timing of separation and marital satisfaction: An eight-year prospective longitudinal study

Information from the growth curves (initial level and rate of change)for individual differences variables over the first 4 years of marriage was used to predict the timing of physical separation over the first 8 years of marriage and the level of marital satisfaction at the eighth year of marriage for an initial sample of 522 married couples. Overall, findings indicated that both initial level and change were needed to account for variability in each marital outcome. There was no evidence that information from wives' growth curves was sufficient to predict either marital outcome.