Journal of personality and social psychology
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Based on growing evidence that negative-direct behavior that addresses important contextual and situational demands is less harmful than negative-direct behavior that occurs irrespective of current demands, the current investigation tests whether the longitudinal impact of partners' negative-direct behavior depends on whether that behavior is more variable versus stable across couples' daily life and conflict interactions. In Studies 1 and 2, participants rated how much their partner behaved in critical and unpleasant ways every day for 21 days. In Study 3, couples were video-recorded discussing an important area of conflict, and independent coders rated how much partners expressed criticism and hostility within every 30-s segment of the discussion. ⋯ Participants also reported on the severity of their relationship problems and relationship satisfaction at the beginning of each study and then 9 months later (Studies 1 and 2) or repeatedly across the following year (Study 3). High mean levels of partners' criticism and hostility predicted greater relationship problems (Studies 1-3) and lower relationship satisfaction (Study 3) when partners' negative-direct behavior was stable across time (low within-person variability), but was less harmful when partners' negative-direct behavior varied across time (high within-person variability). These novel results illustrate that behavioral variability offers a valuable way to understand and examine behavioral patterns that will be more helpful versus harmful in navigating the challenges of social life. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
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United States higher education prioritizes independence as the cultural ideal. As a result, first-generation students (neither parent has a four-year degree) often confront an initial cultural mismatch early on in college settings: they endorse relatively interdependent cultural norms that diverge from the independent cultural ideal. This initial cultural mismatch can lead first-generation students to perform less well academically compared with continuing-generation students (one or more parents have a four-year degree) early in college. ⋯ Together, these results suggest that initial cultural mismatch contributes to worse experiences and academic outcomes among first-generation students, and that these disparities persist even until graduation. Further, we find that social class differences in cultural norms remain stable throughout college: first-generation students continue to endorse more interdependence than do continuing-generation students. We suggest providing access is not sufficient to reduce social class inequity; colleges need to create more inclusive environments to ensure that students from diverse backgrounds can reap similar rewards. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).