conflict-avoiding type, and 2 (1.5%) only endorsed the hostile type at the specified level.

As in Holman and Jarvis's study, a number of the participants highly rated combinations

of the validating and other conflict types. Thirty-three couples (25%) scored at or above

the midpoints for both the conflict-avoiding and validating types, while 11 (8.3%) scored

at or above the midpoints for both the volatile and validating types; one couple endorsed

both the hostile and validating conflict types. Other combinations of types occurred less

frequently: four couples endorsed both the volatile and conflict-avoiding types at or

above the scale's midpoint, 4 endorsed both the volatile and hostile types, and 1 couple

endorsed the hostile and conflict-avoiding types. Finally, 4 couples scored at or above the

midpoint for all three regulated types (volatile, conflict-avoiding, and validating), while 1

couple endorsed all four types at the specified level. Twelve couples did not score at or

above the midpoint for any of the couple conflict types.

 Correlations between the study's variables were computed and are presented in

Table 4-2. Several significant correlations were found. Not surprisingly, household task

differentiation was positively associated with child-related task differentiation (r = .31).

Both task differentiation domains were associated with the couple's reported role

dissatisfaction, though the relationship was stronger for child-related tasks (r = .49) than

for household tasks (r = .20). In both domains, higher levels of task differentiation were

associated with higher role dissatisfaction while less differentiation (more task sharing)

was associated with less role dissatisfaction. Household task differentiation but not child-

related task differentiation was significantly associated with couple's age (r = -.25).