Happily (n)ever after? Codevelopment of romantic partners in continuing and dissolving unions

Do patterns of intimate relationship development foreshadow whether couples' unions stay together or end in separation? Integrating tenets from the enduring dynamics and emergent distress models of relationship development, we propose an accumulating distress model suggesting that the trajectories of those in dissolving partnerships (i.e., unions that ultimately end) are characterized by higher base levels of distress that increase more rapidly over time compared to those in continuing partnerships. In addition, we propose that this pattern applies to codevelopment between partners: those in dissolving unions are expected to have higher base dissimilarity that increases more rapidly over time compared to continuing couples. We further test whether the proposed patterns of codevelopment are equally apparent in young and middle adult couples. To test this model, we draw on data from 1,965 couples from 2 age groups in the German Family Panel study surveyed annually 7 times. Results support the concept of accumulating distress in the trajectories of relationship satisfaction, commitment, and conflict. For codevelopment, increasing dissimilarity in dissolving couples emerged for connectedness and autonomy in the relationship. In addition, dissolving partners became more similar in their low degree of commitment to the relationship. Age-related analyses broadly replicated the pattern of accumulating distress in young and middle adult couples with few exceptions for young adult women. In sum, in accordance with an accumulating distress concept of relationship codevelopment, our results revealed higher base and increasing levels of distress and dissimilarity across time among partners in dissolving unions compared to continuing couples. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).