Mine, Yours and Ours: A Configural Analysis of the Networks of Married Couples in Relation to Marital Satisfaction and Individual Well-Being

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Abstract
The present study examined different ways that a sample of 49 working- and middle-class married couples structured their shared and separate relationships with family and friends. The research focused on the married couple as the unit of analysis, and used information from both members of the dyad to construct descriptions of couples' conjoint networks. Couples were empirically classified according to network structural variables considered simultaneously. Four different types of conjoint networks were found to characterize the sample. Couples with different types of conjoint networks were found to differ in their self-reports of marital satisfaction. Conjoint network type was also differentially related to self-reports of depression and psychological symptoms for husbands and wives.