ABSTRACT
Longitudinal studies confirm that personal relationships flourish when the partners meet and interact with each other's friends and family, when they develop a shared network, and when network members are perceived as supporting the relationship. The longitudinal work also raises several questions and challenges regarding previous research. It challenges, for example, whether the overall level of liking one has for another person's friends and family has much impact on the relationship with that person. Research on divorce has identified two general classes of factors. One set of factors involves the broad social and economic conditions that affect marital stability. Studies in this line generally show that divorce is more common among groups with less income, less education, more children, unfair divisions of family labor, and a lower social standing within the community. Missing from the picture is a thoughtful analysis of the role of social context in the fate of relationships.
