Married for Life is a book about life long marriage. The primary focus is on the healthy, happy marriages. Research is from a prospective longitudinal study of couples who married around the end of World War II and had two or three children. The couples and their families were interviewed at mid-life when their children were adolescents; the couples were interviewed again 25 years later. Home interviews included questionnaires, taped marital interaction (later coded), history each mate's family experience growing up and their evaluations of their parents' marriages, and discussions of the stresses and supports the couples faced in their own marriage as well as their ideas about the ingredients of a good marriage.

The book will be written for a general audience with notes and references for social scientists. Frequent use will be made of couples' stories, stories of courage and survival, health issues, loss of children, financial struggles, the challenges of keeping a marriage together and those of raising children. A summary chapter will be about lessons learned from the research.

Contents:

Chapter 1. Meeting and Marriage

Overview of couples. Historical context. Who they are; how they met. What did their parents' think? Who came to the wedding?

Chapter 2. Growing Up

Links with the past. Relationships between the marriages of their parents and their own marriages. Relationships between the way they were parented and disciplined by mother and father - and the success of the present marriage.

Chapter 3. Patterns through time

Characteristics of the more successful versus less successful couples. (Successful in terms of each mate's own wellbeing, and their satisfaction with the marriage, their health and their relationships with their adult children.) Includes data from the coding of interaction process.

Chapter 4. Creating a Family; Raising Children

Links between the marriage and the family. Association between marital strengths and the kind of family (based on taped family interactions during adolescence) the couple created. What they tried to do differently from their own parents. [place in historical context]

Chapter 5. Challenges Met

Overview and stories of challenges: financial, their parents, job loss, health, etc.

What helped get them through theit struggles. Neighbors with whom they exchanged baby-sitting. Their parents. Their church communities. Their commitments to each other.

Chapter 6. Lessons for the Present

Summary of traits and behaviors which support successful long-term marriage. Include literature summary here - brief, pointed, as well as the couples' ideas.

What do these couples think makes for good marriages. Include their comments about how they see differences between themselves and the 'current generation.'

Appendix: Study Methods

Chapter Notes (and references)