Relationship Maintenance

Relationship maintenance encompasses a wide range of activities that partners use to preserve their relationships. Despite the importance of these efforts considerably more empirical focus has been devoted to starting (i.e. initiation) and ending (i.e. dissolution) relationships than on maintaining them. In this volume internationally renowned scholars from a variety of disciplines describe diverse sets of relationship maintenance efforts in order to show why some relationships endure whereas others falter. By focusing on ''what to do'' rather than ''what not to do'' in relationships this book paints a more comprehensive picture of the forms functions and contexts of relationship maintenance. It is essential reading for scholars and students in psychology communication human development and family science sociology and couple/marriage and family therapy.