Residential moves in the early years of marriage: Stressor or normative transition?

During the early years of marriage, couples will frequently move to a new residence, a transition experienced as stressful by most people. Three theoretical perspectives offer competing predictions about how residential moves may account for changes in marital satisfaction. To the extent that stress generally harms intimacy, couples who move may experience declines in satisfaction relative to those who remain in place. Yet, because moving is a common and normative stressor, couples may generally manage their experience of moving without ill effects. Alternatively, the effect of moving on satisfaction may depend on why couples are moving, the outcomes of the move, and the resources available to manage the stress. Evidence for these perspectives was evaluated with data from two independent samples of first-married newlywed couples sampled from lower income neighborhoods and interviewed multiple times over several years (total N = 662 couples). Preregistered analyses found no evidence that moving was negatively associated with couples' satisfaction concurrently or longitudinally. Apart from a few instances, there was scant evidence for significant moderators. These results suggest that moving may indeed be a normative transition that couples generally navigate well during the early years of marriage. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).