The purpose of this study was to examine the structure of the midlife marriage, focusing on identity, intimacy, and marital satisfaction. The investigator sought to identify the identity issues that midlife men and women are experiencing, describe the intimacy issues they face as couples, and show if/how these factors relate to marital satisfaction. Data were collected from a purposive sample of 48 midlife couples in the Roanoke Valley area. These couples were subgrouped into two categories: twenty-rive couples were classified as nonclinical couples (not in marital counseling at the present time) and twentythree were classified as clinical couples (currently in marital counseling). Information from the Waring Intimacy Questionnaire (WIQ) was used to analyze identity and intimacy issues and to examine factors that influenced marital satisfaction. Information from the Marital Satisfaction Scale was used to assess the level of marital satisfaction for both nonclinical and clinical couples. The results of the study indicated that (1) men and women who are in marital counseling are in the process of examining their identity issues. Women appear to be reassessing their roles as wives and mothers and are beginning to concentrate on their individuality. The issues for men were less clearly defined. They continued to view work as of central importance in their lives and did not seem to have made the transition from work to family as their main source of identity as Levinson, Darrow, Klein, Levinson, and McKee (1978) predicted. Based on WIQ scores and qualitative responses on the questionnaire, men in both the nonclinical and clinical subgroups, and women in the clinical subgroup did not feel they had an intimate relationship with their spouses. Contrary to the premises of this study, identity and intimacy were not the most significant factors affecting marital satisfaction for these midlife couples. The two factors that most determined their couples· level of marital satisfaction were social desirability and compatibility. / Ph. D.

The effectiveness of an adventure-based marriage enrichment program in increasing marital intimacy was studied. Thirty seven married couples from a relatively conservative Protestant religion composed the sample. The sample was composed of volunteer participants ranging in age from 21-47. The participants were randomly assigned to two treatment groups and a control group. The Waring Intimacy Questionnaire, a participants' Self-Rating of Intimacy Scale, a participants' Intimacy Change Scale, and an open-ended questionnaire were used to collect data. Analysis of Covariance was use to determine differences in post-test scores using the pre-test as the covariate. The findings showed statistical significance for group post-test scores on the WIQ Total Intimacy Scores, E (2,70)= 3.96, p < .05. Significance was shown for group post-test scores on the WIQ cohesiveness subscale, F (2,70) = 8.71, p < .001. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this research is to clarify, summarize, and logically integrate all the major premarital and marital determinants of affect (positive or negative) that appeared in research articles of the major journals during the time period 1980-1992. The findings are presented in the form of second-order propositions in chapter four. There are one-hundred and forty-one second-order propositions synthesizing the findings of two-hundred and ninety-one first-order propositions which constitute the propositional summaries of two-hundred and ninety-one articles. The findings of these articles were considered to be significant and relevant for the present study, and were taken from a total pool of six-hundred and ninety-seven articles. / Master of Science

This study investigated, responses, of older married persons to questions concerning anticipated availability of help and anticipated sources of help for seven in-home service areas: personal care, nursing care, physical therapy, continuous supervision, household chores, and meal preparation. Variables such as age, gender, level of impairment, proximity of nearest family member, and social resources served as independent variables for this study. Anticipated availability of, help and anticipated sources of help, specifically spouse, other family member, friend-neighbor, agency, or other, served as dependent variables. The investigator's interest was to determine what variables influenced the choice of spouse versus other choices in, anticipated sources of help, and to examine gender differences in anticipated assistance. Use of chi square analysis determined the independence of variables characterizing older married respondents and their anticipated sources of help. Respondents most frequently chose spouse as the anticipated source of help for all in-home services except physical therapy, where agency was the most frequently chosen source of help. Men anticipated help from spouse significantly more than did women. Women anticipated help from sources other than spouse more frequently than men. / Master of Science

The purposes of this study were to describe patterns of time use and to identify some of the sources of the gender gap in time expenditures in both urban and rural China. Based on previous theoretical perspectives, a number of individual and family structure characteristics were proposed to form a parsimonious and distinct model. Bivariate analysis, ANOVA, and multiple regression with interaction terms were used to test hypotheses that linked predictive variables with the dependent variables of the inquiry. Empirical work of the study was based on the 1990 survey data from a representative sample of adult Chinese persons living in Hubei Province, People's Republic of China. The descriptive results provided abundant information about gender differences in paid work, housework and leisure activities. On the whole, urban women had an equal amount of paid work as men had, their unpaid housework hours doubled or tripled their men's, and their leisure time was one hour less than men's. The gender gap in time use was larger in rural areas than in urban ones. The ANOVA results confirmed the majority of the aforementioned findings as significant. The multiple regression results identified the determinants of time use as follows: Once the other variables were held constant, (1) age, education, and income were predictive of paid work time; (2) sex, paid work time, education, and marital status had a significant impact on housework time; and (3) sex, time spent on paid work and housework, age, education, and income affected leisure time. The three models were found to be more applicable to the rural setting than to the urban one. The conclusions raised questions requiring policy development in China, and theoretical improvement and future research in both China and America. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this research journey is twofold: 1. To deconstruct the Christ-church metaphor in Ephesians 5:21-33 in pastoral marital therapy. To find a more ethical interpretation of this metaphor which can be used as an aid in marital therapy in order to deconstruct patriarchal stereotypes in marriage. 2. To discover the possible value of such an interpretation for marital therapy as well as to describe the journey with a couple who helped to determine the process by which this interpretation could be used as and aid to deconstruct patriarchal discourses in marriage. / Practical Theology / (M.Th. (Specialisation Pastoral Therapy))

The purpose of this research journey is twofold: 1. To deconstruct the Christ-church metaphor in Ephesians 5:21-33 in pastoral marital therapy. To find a more ethical interpretation of this metaphor which can be used as an aid in marital therapy in order to deconstruct patriarchal stereotypes in marriage. 2. To discover the possible value of such an interpretation for marital therapy as well as to describe the journey with a couple who helped to determine the process by which this interpretation could be used as and aid to deconstruct patriarchal discourses in marriage. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / (M.Th. (Specialisation Pastoral Therapy))

This study investigated the relationship of certain independent variables and young married couples' attitudes toward children. Church leaders in Plano, Texas, administered the Hereford Parent Attitude Survey to couples from their churches. Ninety-seven subjects comprised the main sample group. The data were analyzed using t-tests and f-tests. Women had more positive attitudes toward children than men. Parents had more positive attitudes than childless subjects. Childless subjects who plan to have children had more positive attitudes toward children than subjects who did not plan to have children or who were not sure. Income level was related to confidence in parenting. Age and sex of children and education level were not related to attitudes toward children. Based on these findings, recommendations were made for future research and education.

Husbands and wives of 67 couples described themselves on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, described their spouses on an altered form of this test, and completed the Locke-Wallace Short Marital Adjustment Test. Results for each man were matched to a woman's results based on socio-cultrual similarity to create a comparison group of nonmarried couples. A chi-square test indicated that related spouses of the married group did not have more similar personalities than unrelated partners in the comparison group. An F-test suggested that actually, interspousal personality similarity affects marital adjustment for both sexes, but it is not affected by perceived similarity. Accuracy of perception on the introversion-extraversion scale had a positive effect on the marital adjustment of wives, but not of husbands.

One hundred twenty African-American and Euro-American married individuals were asked to complete inventories measuring marital distress, dysfunctional beliefs about marital relationships, and socioeconomic status (SES). It was hypothesized there would be a negative relationship between the dysfunctional beliefs that married individuals held and their level of marital satisfaction; there would be no significant difference between the dysfunctional beliefs that married individuals held across gender and race; and finally, the dysfunctional beliefs of married individuals would provide a better prediction of marital satisfaction than SES, gender, age, or race.Results indicate that Disagreement is destructive (D), Mindreading is expected (M), Partners cannot change (C), Sexual perfectionism is a must (S), and The sexes are dramatically different (MF) each obtained a statistically significant negative association with marital satisfaction. Examining the relationship between gender and marital satisfaction, males reported higher levels of marital satisfaction than females. Furthermore, statistically significant differences were obtained for gender but not for race when considering all five dysfunctional marital beliefs simultaneously. Finally, the various factors considered in this study accounted for 30% of the variance in marital satisfaction. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services