Download or read book Examining Moderating and Mediating Effects of Aversive Behavior in Romantic Relationships written by Amy E. Rodrigues and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In the current study I examined the impact of enduring vulnerabilities (neuroticism and trait anger) and maladaptive relationship behaviors (hostile conflict, aggression, dishonesty, sexual dishonesty) on both concurrent and longitudinal relationship satisfaction. As guided by the Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation Framework (Karney & Bradbury, 1995), I examined models in which relationship behaviors were tested as potential mediators between enduring vulnerabilities and relationship satisfaction. In addition, I investigated moderation models in which maladaptive behaviors were allowed to interact with enduring vulnerabilities. To accomplish these goals, I conducted HLM analyses in two samples, a sample of 1833 married, engaged, and dating individuals followed for 1 year and a sample of 287 newlywed couples followed for 2 years. Consistent with my hypotheses, high levels of neuroticism, hostile conflict, aggression, dishonesty and sexual dishonesty all demonstrated associations with lower levels of concurrent relationship satisfaction, and with decreases in satisfaction over time. The findings surrounding trait anger were mixed and suggested both positive and negative associations between levels of trait anger and relationship functioning. Mediation models received virtually no support, with only one of the indirect effects tested reaching statistical significance, offering little evidence of mediation by relationship behaviors during this 1-2 year time-frame. The moderation results suggested two means through which enduring vulnerabilities and maladaptive behaviors interacted to impact relationship satisfaction. A majority of the longitudinal interactions revealed a negative synergy between maladaptive behaviors and maladaptive traits, suggesting that they might have been particularly toxic to relationships in combination. A majority of the cross-sectional interactions suggested that behavior which was inconsistent with one's personality (e.g., high levels of hostile conflict in an even-tempered individual) may have been particularly toxic to current relationship functioning. All of these results were significant after I controlled for race, education, length of relationship, presence of children, and premarital cohabitation. Clinical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed."--Leaves v-vi.