The Use of Relationship Maintenance Behaviors as a Mechanism to Explain the Decline in Marital Satisfaction Among Parents

This study hypothesized that parents would use less maintenance behavior than nonparents, and that parents with children present in the home would use less maintenance behavior than either nonparents or parents whose children are not living at home. The alternative hypothesis was that relationship length affects maintenance use. Survey data were collected from 177 married individuals. Results indicate significant differences in both self-reported maintenance and the perception of the partner's use of maintenance, with nonparents reporting more self and partner maintenance efforts than individuals with children living at home. However, these differences were not significant when relationship length was controlled.