What predicts steep declines in love and affection early in marriage?
Given that steep declines in love and affection early in marriage are indicators of divorce, what courtship experiences predict couples’ loss of love and decline of affection early in marriage? Early scientists, such as Waller (1938), suggested that dating partners who feel a strong sense of enchantment, who have an idealized perception of their mate, and who are apt to put their “best foot forward” suppress negative emotions or behaviors which might undermine their romantic feelings for each other (Huston, Niehuis, and Smith 2001; Waller 1938). They, therefore, may become disappointed in and disenchanted with their partner early in marriage. In line with this thinking, Niehuis and Huston (2000a, 2002) found that courtship patterns foreshadow the loss of love and affection during the early years of marriage. Affectionate behavior early in marriage declined for both husbands and wives when partners, especially husbands, were very young when the couple got married, and for the husband on
