Everyday interaction in marital relationships: Variations in relative importance and event duration

This study takes an insider's perspective to develop a descriptive map of the types of interactions enacted on an everyday basis in intact marriages. Data were gathered from 55 married couples, who kept logs of all of their dyadic interactions over a 7‐day period. Overall, the results indicate that the most frequently described interactions involved multiple activities (i.e., talking while eating dinner), with affectionate and talk‐based interactions the next most frequent interactional types. Participants viewed the expression of affection as the most important interactional type affecting their relationships. Respondents spent, on average, 5.47 hours in dyadic interaction per day, and they engaged in leisure interactions for longer periods of time than other interactional types.