Based on Pearlin and colleagues' Stress Process Theory and Levinger's social psychological perspective on marital dissolution, this study examines the chronic nature of certain dyadic properties of couples in determining the timing of marital dissolution. Three hundred and seven couples, who had been married for almost 20 years, participated in the Iowa Youth and Families Project and the Midlife Transitions Project. The results of the log-normal accelerated failure time model showed that a chronically high level of marital quality and commitment is beneficial, but a chronically high level of hostility is detrimental, to the survival of marriages. Dissatisfaction with the division of household labor also shortens the expected time to marital dissolution. Nevertheless, warmth/support and relative egalitarianism between spouses do not have noticeable effects as hypothesized. In addition, the findings regarding the relative income between spouses must be interpreted with caution. Future research may continue using couples as the unit of analysis. When considering the occurrence of marital dissolution, future research should take into account the time that couples experience divorce or separation.