The Longitudinal Associations of Sound Financial Management Behaviors and Marital Quality

We investigated the association between sound financial management behaviors and marital quality, particularly the direction of the association and a potential mediator. To do this, we used three waves of longitudinal dyadic data that spanned three years from 279 married couples living in a large northwestern city and a longitudinal path analysis that incorporated the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (Kenny et al. Dyadic data analysis. Guilford, New York City, 2006). Marital satisfaction at T1 was positively associated with sound financial management behavior for husbands; we only found actor effects, though. Wives’ T2 reports of sound financial management behavior were directly and negatively associated with their own reports of marital conflict at T3. Husbands’ T2 reports of sound financial management behavior was negatively associated with T3 economic pressure, which was positively associated with marital conflict. The indirect association was not statistically significant, however.