Table 3.

Differences between Male and Female Probands: Marital Interactions

	Male Probands^a M (SD)	Female Probands^a M (SD)	t	d
Marital Interactions: Past 1 Month^b
Spouse undermining	0.9 (0.6)	1.3 (1.1)	−2.1^*	−0.45
Spouse withdrawal	0.8 (0.8)	1.7 (1.3)	−3.1^*	−0.84
Spouse acceptance	3.0 (1.2)	3.3 (0.8)	−0.9	−0.29
Spouse disclosure	2.8 (1.1)	2.8 (0.5)	−0.1	−0.05
Spouse humor	2.6 (1.0)	3.1 (1.1)	−1.5	−0.45

Marital Interactions: 15-Minute Behavioral Observation Task
Distress-maintaining attributions	2.0 (4.3)	3.1 (3.0)	−0.9	−0.30
Hostility	4.3 (10.5)	9.5 (11.8)	−1.5	−0.47
Acceptance	1.2 (1.6)	2.5 (5.2)	−1.3	−0.34
Relationship-enhancing attributions	10.0 (5.5)	12.1 (6.3)	−0.7	−0.35
Self-disclosure	3.0 (4.2)	2.5 (2.0)	0.5	0.24
Humor	5.5 (6.4)	1.8 (3.1)	2.2^*	0.74
Constructive problem discussion	71.3 (13.1)	68.0 (12.7)	0.8	0.26
Ratio of positive to negative behavior	0.82 (0.23)	0.66 (0.28)	2.2^*	0.62
Proband HO →Spouse HO	0.19 (0.47)	0.88 (0.16)	−2.3^*	0.62
Proband RA →Spouse RA	0.75 (0.88)	0.44 (0.73)	1.2	−1.95
Proband PD →Spouse PD	29.4 (14.7)	28.4 (14.0)	0.2	0.07

Marital Interactions: 2 Week IVR Period^c
Negative interactions last night	0.4 (0.4)	1.2 (1.1)	−3.6^*	−0.90
Negative interactions today	0.5 (0.5)	1.3 (1.1)	−3.6^*	−0.91
Positive interactions last night	3.9 (0.9)	3.4 (1.3)	1.5	0.41
Positive interactions today	3.8 (0.9)	3.5 (1.2)	1.0	0.28

Note. Degrees of freedom ranged from 46 to 52. HM = Humor, HO = Hostility, DA = Distress-Maintaining Attributions, RA = Relationship-Enhancing Attributions, PD = Constructive Problem-Solving Discussions.

For the marital interaction results, n = 32 male probands and n = 16 female probands. All other results are based on n = 37 male probands and n = 17 female probands.

Scaled so that 0 = “not at all,” 1 = “less than once a week,” 2 = “once a week,” 3 = “more than once a week,” and 4 = “about every day.”

Average of the total number of spouse’s behaviors for a given time period (possible range 0 to 5 for last night and today).

d = Cohen’s d (Cohen, 1992).

p < .05.