Although much has been learned from cross-sectional research on marriage, an understanding of how marriages develop, succeed, and fail is best achieved with longitudinal data. In view of growing interest in longitudinal research on marriage, the authors reviewed and evaluated the literature on how the quality and stability of marriages change over time. First, prevailing theoretical perspectives are examined for their ability to explain change in marital quality and stability. Second, the methods and findings of 115 longitudinal studies--representing over 45,000 marriages--are summarized and evaluated, yielding specific suggestions for improving this research, Finally, a model is outlined that integrates the strengths of previous theories of marriage, accounts for established findings, and indicates new directions for research on how marriages change.

The longitudinal course of marital quality and stability: A review of theory, methods, and research.

The authors examine the implications of electronic shopping for consumers, retailers, and manufacturers. They assume that near-term technological developments will offer consumers unparalleled opportunities to locate and compare product offerings. They examine these advantages as a function of typical consumer goals and the types of products and services being sought and offer conclusions regarding consumer incentives and disincentives to purchase through interactive home shopping vis-à-vis traditional retail formats. The authors discuss implications for industry structure as they pertain to competition among retailers, competition among manufacturers, and retailer-manufacturer relationships.

Interactive home shopping: Consumer, retailer, and manufacturer incentives to participate in

A replication and extension of a study performed by Bearden and Etzel are reported in this article. The influence of peers on individuals' product and brand decisions for products that range in their degree of conspicuousness is examined for comparable samples in the United States and in Thailand to assess the validity of the original framework over time and across cultural contexts. Further, the influence of the family is addressed through an examination of intergenerational influences across the two cultures. The results of the study lend support to the original theoretical approach and also provide insight into how reference-group influence may vary depending on whether the influence is exercised by a member of a peer group or by a family member.

The Influence of Familial and Peer-based Reference Groups on Consumer Decisions

Through a field study of 299 men and women, the effect of gender-related variables on Christmas-gift-shopping patterns was explored. Survey results suggest that women are more involved than men in the activity. However, men are likely to be more involved if they hold egalitarian gender-role attitudes. Overall, the study indicates that, while Christmas shopping may be a “labor of love” to some, it is most widely construed as “women's work.”

More than a Labor of Love: Gender Roles and Christmas Gift Shopping

Extreme response styles (ERS) and acquiescence response styles (ARS) may constitute important sources of cross-cultural differences on survey-type instruments. Differences in ERS and ARS, if undetected, may give rise to spurious results that do not reflect genuine differences in attitudes or perceptions. Multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis is recommended as the most effective method of testing for ERS and ARS and determining whether cultural groups can be meaningfully compared on the basis of factor (latent) means. A detailed numerical example is provided.

Assessing Extreme and Acquiescence Response Sets in Cross-Cultural Research Using Structural Equations Modeling

Consumption differences were examined between French-speaking, bilingual, and English-speaking Canadian families from the greater Ottawa/Hull metropolitan area. Significant differences were found f...

French-English Canadian Subcultural Consumption Differences:

A longitudinal panel study of newly married couples is utilized to examine hypothesized consumption andfinance-handling differences between couples who subsequently become divorced or remained happily married. Happily married couples were found to practice role specialization, with greater influence of the wife and less husband dominance in family finance handling, and greater joint and wife influence in decision making. Compared to divorced couples, they spent more for household appliances, home purchases and down payments, and recreational vehicles, as hypothesized. Divorced couples spent more on stereos and color TVs, as well as living-room furniture.

A longitudinal comparison of consumption and finance handling between happily married and divorced couples.

Removing response-style effects in attribute-determinance ratings to identify market segments

The Influence of Sex Roles on Family Decision Processes and Outcomes

Four underlying, common sex role factors were identified via separate factor analyses on husbands' and wives' responses to a battery of Likert items tapping sex role norms. Canonical correlation analyses showed that sex role norms were significantly related to couple and parental demographics. Modern sex role norms were positively related to wife's education, occupational status and income, to wife's mother's occupation and work experience, and to husband's education, but negatively related to presence of young children.

W. Christian Buss

Papers

French-English Canadian Subcultural Consumption Differences:

A longitudinal comparison of consumption and finance handling between happily married and divorced couples.

Removing response-style effects in attribute-determinance ratings to identify market segments

The Influence of Sex Roles on Family Decision Processes and Outcomes

The relationship of sex-role norms to couple and parental demographics