Marital happiness and stability: A review of the research in the sixties.
01 Nov 1970-Journal of Marriage and Family (US: National Council on Family Relations)-Vol. 32, Iss: 4, pp 553
About: This article is published in Journal of Marriage and Family.The article was published on 1970-11-01. It has received 301 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Happiness & Marital status.
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TL;DR: The Dyadic Adjustment Scale as discussed by the authors is a measure for assessing the quality of marriage and other similar dyads, which is designed for use with either married or unmarried cohabiting couples.
Abstract: This study reports on the development of the Dyadic Adjustment Scale, a new measure for assessing the quality of marriage and other similar dyads. The 32-item scale is designed for use with either married or unmarried cohabiting couples. Despite widespread criticisms of the concept of adjustment, the study proceeds from the pragmatic position that a new measure, which is theoretically grounded, relevant, valid, and highly reliable, is necessary since marital and dyadic adjustment continue to be researched. This factor analytic study tests a conceptual definition set forth in eariler work and suggests the existence of four empirically verified components of dyadic adjustment which can be used as subscales [dyadic satisfaction, dyadic cohesion, dyadic consensus and affectional expression]. Evidence is presented suggesting content, criterion-related, and construct validity. High scale reliability is reported. The possibility of item weighting is considered and endorsed as a potential measurement technique, but it not adopted for the present Dyadic Adjustment Scale. It is concluded that the Dyadic Adjustment Scale represents a significant improvement over other measures of marital adjustment, but a number of troublesome methodological issues remain for future research.
6,899 citations
TL;DR: A model is outlined that integrates the strengths of previous theories of marriage, accounts for established findings, and indicates new directions for research on how marriages change.
Abstract: Although much has been learned from cross-sectional research on marriage, an understanding of how marriages develop, succeed, and fail is best achieved with longitudinal data. In view of growing interest in longitudinal research on marriage, the authors reviewed and evaluated the literature on how the quality and stability of marriages change over time. First, prevailing theoretical perspectives are examined for their ability to explain change in marital quality and stability. Second, the methods and findings of 115 longitudinal studies--representing over 45,000 marriages--are summarized and evaluated, yielding specific suggestions for improving this research, Finally, a model is outlined that integrates the strengths of previous theories of marriage, accounts for established findings, and indicates new directions for research on how marriages change.
2,459 citations
TL;DR: A review indicates that dissatisfied spouses, compared with satisfied spouses, make attributions for the partner's behavior that cast it in a negative light, and experimental, clinical outcome, and longitudinal data suggest that attributions may influence marital satisfaction.
Abstract: The prevailing behavioral account of marriage must be expanded to include covert processes. This article therefore examines the attributions or explanations that spouses make for marital events. A review indicates that dissatisfied spouses, compared with satisfied spouses, make attributions for the partner's behavior that cast it in a negative light. Experimental, clinical outcome, and longitudinal data suggest further that attributions may influence marital satisfaction. Rival hypotheses for these findings are examined. Because continued empirical development in this domain depends on conceptual progress, a framework is presented that integrates attributions, behavior, and marital satisfaction. This framework points to several topics that require systematic study, and specific hypotheses are offered for research on these topics. It is concluded that the promising start made toward understanding marital attributions holds considerable potential for enriching behavioral conceptions of marriage.
893 citations
580 citations
TL;DR: This article found that adults with children at home report that they are less happy and less satisfied with their lives than other groups, and that they worry more and experience higher levels of anxiety and depression.
Abstract: Recent studies suggest that parenthood may have negative consequences for the psychological well-being of adults. Adults with children at home report that they are less happy and less satisfied with their lives than other groups. They also appear to worry more and to experience higher levels of anxiety and depression. The overall difference between parents and nonparents appears to be small, although it has increased during the past two decades. Differences between parents and nonparents stem from economic and time constraints, which in turn arise from general social trends such as the increase in women’s labor force participation and the increase in marital disruption and single parenthood. We expect these trends to continue in the near future, reducing the desire for children and increasing gender conflict over the division of parental obligations. Parental strain might be alleviated by some form of state-supported childcare or child allowance.
468 citations
References
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Book•
01 Jun 1979
TL;DR: Gurin, Veroff, and Feld as mentioned in this paper conducted a survey with nearly twenty-five hundred individuals to assess the nation's mental health resources and needs from a variety of perspectives, focusing on the subjective dimension of mental health.
Abstract: BOOK REVIEWS Americans View Their Mental Health. By Gerald Gurin, Joseph Veroff, and Sheila Feld. Price, $7.50. Pp. 444. Basic Books, Inc., 59 Fourth Ave., New York 3, 1960. This is the fourth in the series of ten monographs sponsored by the Joint Commission on Mental Illness and Health and designed to assess the nation's mental health resources and needs from a variety of perspectives. Its focus is the subjective dimension of mental health. Although not all of the monographs have been published so far, the findings and the recommendations of each have been already summed up and interpreted in the Commission's final report which, because of the publicity it has received, may be familiar to many readers. The present volume is based on an interview survey conducted in 1957 with nearly twenty-five hundred individuals selected to provide a probability sample of the country's adult population. It is a product of three social psychologists, all of whom are on the staff of the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan, one of the few widely recognized and influential organizations of its kind in social sciences. Besides being impressive for sheer magnitude and the consistent clarity in the presentation and evaluation of the data, the study gives further testimony of the methodological sophistication and the technical know-how typical of the work produced by the Center. Without committing themselves to a definition of mental health, the investigators explore it through a number of measures of adjustment. The measures, however, all derive from the self-appraised, experiential realm of the respondent. In the area of general life adjustment, such measures are obtained from the information about the extent of worrying, evaluation of personal happiness, whether the respondent ever felt close to a nervous breakdown, and if he ever experienced a problem relevant for professional help. In the more specific areas of functioning, namely, marriage, parenthood, and work, adjustment is studied via consideration of such variables as satisfaction with the particular role, feelings of adequacy in performing it, degree of involvement, expectations about future, and the type of problems and their prevalence encountered in each role. It is worth pointing out that in taking a multiple-criterion approach to mental health, the investigators are implicitly in agreement with the current view (e.g., Jahoda, 1958; Smith, 1961) that the search for a conceptual formulation of mental health which could meet with a general consensus is futile because of the unavoidable valuative assumptions in all such formulations. The organization of the book is as follows : The first part deals mainly with the distribution and the interrelations of the indices of adjustment in different demographic groups, most often specified in terms of such variables as sex, education, and age. (Religion, in-
1,160 citations
TL;DR: In an attempt to attain greater conceptual clarity than is permitted with the traditional omnibus terms of marital adjustment, integration, etc., six specific areas of marital experience are identified.
Abstract: In an attempt to attain greater conceptual clarity than is permitted with the traditional omnibus terms of marital adjustment, integration, etc., six more specific areas of marital experience are identified. The research investigates how subjective satisfaction with each of these areas varies over the life cycle. Contrary to earlier findings, the school-age stage is found to be the most difficult. Satisfaction in relationships with children remains low through adolescent years, but in most of the other areas the adolescent years in this sample are the beginning of a rising trend that usually lasts until retirement.
202 citations
TL;DR: Marital conventionalization is defined as "the extent to which a person distorts the appraisal of his marriage in the direction of social desirability" as discussed by the authors, which is a measure of how a person deviates from his or her appraisal of a marriage in order to conform to social norms.
Abstract: This article is a report of a preliminary study in the definition and measurement of marital conventionalization. Marital conventionalization is defined as the extent to which a person distorts the appraisal of his marriage in the direction of social desirability. Since the measurement of the variable is direct, the major focus is upon establishing content validity for a short scale of marital conventionalization. Since the results indicate that marital conventionalization is both extensive and intensive, it is necessary to control for its effect in any study of highly egoinvolved areas, particularly the area of marital adjustment.
200 citations
TL;DR: Characteristics suggest that the difference between an individual's scores on the satisfactions and tensions indexes, called the "Marriage Adjustment Balance Scale" (MABS), is a good over-all indicator of anindividual's happiness in marriage.
Abstract: This paper is concerned with the development of a theoretical model of the structure of marriage happiness that may be useful for diagnosis, analysis, and prediction. An over-all model, composed of a dimension of satisfactions and a dimension of tensions which function independently to produce happiness in marriage, is suggested. The independent dimensions correlate in the expected directions with an individual's own assessment of his marriage, but do not correlate with each other. These characteristics suggest that the difference between an individual's scores on the satisfactions and tensions indexes, called the "Marriage Adjustment Balance Scale" (MABS), is a good over-all indicator of an individual's happiness in marriage. Marriage happiness self-ratings and the MABS were found to be positively related to over-all happiness ratings. Each of the marriage happiness indexes is also related to over-all happiness in the expected direction. Finally, marriage happiness is related to over-all happiness throug...
197 citations