Couple Consensus during Marital Joint Decision-Making: A Context, Process, Outcome Model

This study tests a conceptual model of the context, processes, and outcomes of joint marital decision-making. Alternative conceptualizations of partners' coerciveness, control, and consensus as individual versus couple constructs were assessed. Data collected via both observational and self-report methods from 188 married couples were analyzed by using the LISREL VI program. A model specifying spouses' process variables as individual-level measures and partners' consensus as a couple construct best fit the data. The context factor of spouses' emotional interdependence influenced both partners' coerciveness and degree of control. The specified context and process factors explained over half of the variability in married couples' shared consensus regarding the issue of wives' activities. Spouses who reached higher levels of consensus included husbands who had patterns of previous cooperativeness during conflict situations, more equitable economic resources of the spouses, wives whose communication styles were less coercive, and spouses who demonstrated greater control.