Narratives About Covid Challenges in Mexican American Couples as Predictors of Relationship Satisfaction
Bibliographic Data
The objective of this study was to describe the narrative themes that emerged in Mexican American couples' stories about their relationship challenges at the beginning of the COVID‐19 pandemic—during lockdown—and to examine how those themes related to their relationship satisfaction. We surveyed 58 male–female married couples ( n = 116 participants; 73.33% Mexican American) recruited from the Southwest United States and enrolled in a longitudinal study of relationship functioning. Spouses wrote stories about the greatest COVID‐19–related challenges they were facing as a couple. To explore associations between relationship satisfaction and the lived experience of COVID‐19, stories were coded for established narrative identity themes (agency, communion, affect, meaning‐making) and themes developed to account for the context of marital challenges (challenge outcomes, couple stress responses, familismo, overriding positive regard). Relationship satisfaction was associated with six narrative themes for wives (0.29 ≤ | r | ≤ 0.56) and three themes for husbands (0.29 ≤ | r | ≤ 0.40). Actor–partner interdependence modeling showed six actor effects and one partner effect for wives but no significant effects for husbands. This research provides novel insight into the challenges faced by Mexican American couples during the pandemic and suggests great promise for using narrative identity research to understand how individuals' narrations of couple stories are linked to relationship satisfaction. Further, our findings suggest that the narrative themes characterizing how conflict is storied by partners within the couple therapy room might be directly targeted as a means to improve relationship satisfaction
Context (archaeology) · Identity (music) · Mexican americans · Narrative · Narrative inquiry · Partner effects · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics · Counseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics · Identity, Memory, and Therapy
Promoting Transparency in Social Science Research
The Actor–Partner Interdependence Model
The identity function of autobiographical memory
The Incremental Validity of Narrative Identity in Predicting Well-Being
Dyadic coping and relationship satisfaction
Effectsize
Autobiographical memory
Narrative Identity
Welcome to the Tidyverse
Research Methods for Studying Narrative Identity
Gender, “masculinity,” and “femininity”
Applying Hybrid Coding and Reflexivity in Qualitative Content Analysis
Guidelines for Establishing Reliability When Coding Narrative Data
Mexican American and Other Hispanic Couples’ Relationship Dynamics
Familism values and adjustment among Hispanic/Latino individuals
Inductive/Deductive Hybrid Thematic Analysis in Mixed Methods Research
Exploring Links Between Well-Being and Interactional Sense-Making in Married Couples' Jointly Told Stories of Stress
Narrating traumas and transgressions
The power of narrative
Family relationships and familism among Mexican Americans on the U.S.–Mexico border during the Covid-19 pandemic
The effects of discrimination and psychological distress on U.S. Latino/a young adults’ relational uncertainty and relationship instability
The Story of Us
Daily stress and relationship quality
Who gets to live the good life? Master Narratives, identity, and well-being within a marginalizing society
Stories of Life Transition
Earner Status, Marital Satisfaction, and Division of Childcare among Mexican American and Caucasian Couples
Living into the story
Narrative and gender as mutually constituted meaning-making systems
Trajectories of Familísmo, Respéto, Traditional Gender Attitudes, and Parenting Practices Among Mexican‐Origin Families
Variation in narrative identity is associated with trajectories of mental health over several years
The empirical structure of narrative identity
On the directive function of episodic memories in people's lives
An Anthropology of Familismo
Speaking silence
A labor of love? Emotion work in intimate relationships
The narrative construction of intimacy and affect in relationship stories
The stories couples live by
Romantic partner communication, familism values, and Latine young adults' relationship maintenance
The narrative psychology of love lives
Mexican Immigrant Wives' Acculturative Stress and Spouses' Marital Quality
Gender Differences in Social Acculturation and Social Capital in Determining Marital and Parental Role Expectations Among People of Mexican Descent
| Citation velocity | historical |
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| Highly cited | No |