Sanctification of marriage and spiritual intimacy predicting observed marital interactions across the transition to parenthood.

We examined whether 164 heterosexual, married couples' reports of the sanctification of their marriage and their spiritual intimacy predicted their observed behavior across the transition to parenthood, using highly conservative statistical strategies to control for time-invariant factors and time-varying factors (marital love, collaborative communication skills) that could explain away these links. Spouses provided self-reports of marital sanctification and love, and joint reports of spiritual intimacy and collaboration by each partner. Criterion variables were positive and negative behaviors that spouses exhibited during dyadic discussions of marital conflicts, videotaped during pregnancy and when the couple's first infant was 3, 6, and 12 months old.