Marital Quality and Spouses Marriage Work With Close Friends and Each Other

Through in-home interviews with 142 married couples, we explored how husbandsʹ and wivesʹ marriage work with close friends and one another was linked to their perceptions of marital quality. Results showed that husbands engaged in more marriage work with their wives than with close friends, whereas wives engaged in similar levels of marriage work with their close friends and husbands. For wives, marriage work with their spouses was found to moderate the relationship between marital quality and marriage work with Afriends. At low levels of marriage work with their spouses, wivesʹ marriage work with friends was negatively related to their reports of marital love and positively related to reports of ineffective arguing. In contrast, at high levels of marriage work with their husbands, no significant relationship was found between wivesʹ marriage work with friends and marital quality for wives. Findings underscore the role of spousesʹ friendships and suggest that the strength of spousesʹ ties to one another is linked to the social context they and their close friends create