The purpose of this investigation was to explore the relationship between various indices of marital role conflict and measures of marital adjustment.

The problem with which this investigation was concerned, was that of determining the relationships between personality adjustment, social interaction abilities and marital adjustment. The following hypotheses were investigated: 1) there will be a significant relationship between individual personality adjustment and marital adjustment, and 2) there will be a significant relationship between marital harmony and social interaction abilities.

This study examined associations among romantic attachment anxiety and avoidance, positive and negative religious coping, and marital adjustment in a community sample of 81 heterosexual couples. Both spouses completed the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale (ECR), a brief measure of religious coping (Brief RCOPE), the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS), and a demographic questionnaire as part of a larger study. Multilevel modeling (MLM) for the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM) was used. Attachment avoidance was inversely related to positive religious coping. In contrast, attachment anxiety was directly related to negative religious coping. Positive religious coping buffered the relationship between attachment avoidance and marital adjustment. In contrast, attachment anxiety was detrimental to marital adjustment regardless of positive religious coping, and positive religious coping was related to higher marital adjustment only in the context of low attachment anxiety. Surprisingly, the spouse's attachment anxiety was inversely related to the respondent's marital adjustment only when the respondent reported low levels of negative religious coping, whereas in the context of high negative religious coping, the partner's attachment anxiety was related to higher marital adjustment. Results support using attachment theory to conceptualize religious coping and the consideration of both attachment and religious coping constructs in counseling.

This study examined the relationship between rituals and marital adjustment among a sample of newlyweds. Rituals and marital adjustment were defined and their importance in family life outlined. Five research questions guided the study: (1) Is ritual activity associated with marital adjustment and length of courtship for newlyweds?; (2) Is ritual activity associated with marital satisfaction and length of courtship for newlyweds?; (3) Is ritual activity associated with cohesion and length of courtship for newlyweds?; (4) Is ritual activity associated with consensus and length of courtship for newlyweds?; and (5) Is there a difference between husbands and wives on the number and types of rituals (family celebrations, family traditions, and family interactions) that couples report are most related to their overall marital quality? Ritual activity was measured by a new instrument created for the present study: the Ritual Inventory (RI). Marital adjustment and its components (satisfaction, cohesion, and consensus) were measured using the Revised Dyadi c Adjustment Scale (RDAS). Length of courtship was used as a control variable. The analysis revealed no relationship between rituals and marital adjustment for newlyweds. Length of courtship was a significant factor with marital adjustment and marital satisfaction . Implications and suggestions for future research are presented.

Graduate school for most students can be quite stressful. When combined with the responsibility of being a spouse, parent, and/or employee, the stress is elevated. Research has indicated that the greatest area of discord for married graduate students and their nonstudent spouses is communication. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of a relationship enhancement program on the marital adjustment of graduate students and their spouses. The sample consisted of 28 married graduate students and their nonstudent spouses. These couples were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups or a control group. Some of the treatment group participants received one-on-one training by a therapist certified in Relationship Enhancement (RE while others received the training through an RE self-study manual (Guerney, 1987). Marital adjustment was measured pre and post test to intervention by the Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Test (Locke & Wallace, 1959). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed significant differences between treatment group and control group as measured by scores of marital adjustment. This study also provides suggestions for how institutions of higher education can provide support to married students and their spouses on college campuses. / Ph. D.

This study explored the individual and dyadic coping processes of men and women in infertile couples and their relationship to infertility stress, marital adjustment, and depression. Study participants were comprised of 1,026 men and women (420 of which were couples) who were referred to a university-affiliated teaching hospital for advanced reproductive treatments between the years of 1991 and 2001. Three months prior to treatment, participants completed the Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ), the Fertility Problem Inventory (FPI), the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS), and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Findings from the study showed that escape avoidance, accepting responsibility, and self controlling were strongly related to increased stress, depression, and decreased marital adjustment for both men and women; while seeking social support was related to increased marital adjustment. Multivariate analyses of variance and covariance consistently showed that participants in four groups of couples who used high and low amounts of coping differed in their reports of infertility stress, marital adjustment, and depression. In addition, gender differences were found, with females consistently reporting greater levels of stress and depression than males. Several significant couple pairings among the four groups were found. Clinical implications linking study findings with marital and family therapies and ideas for future research are discussed. / Ph. D.

Recent studies have shown that the experience of infertility is linked with emotional responses such as depression, anxiety, guilt, social isolation, and decreased self-esteem in both men and women. This study explored the impact of congruence between couples' infertility-related stress and its effects on depression and marital adjustment in infertile men and women. Study participants were comprised of 525 couples referred to a university-affiliated teaching hospital for assessment and treatment with advanced reproductive technologies. Participants completed the Fertility Problem Inventory (FPI), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) three months prior to their first treatment cycle. The impact of differences between couples' perceptions of infertility-related stress were examined in relation to their effect on individual levels of depression and marital adjustment in both men and women. Results showed that differences between couple's evaluations of infertility-related stress were predictive of female depression, but not male depression. Women in couples who reported high levels of congruence (e.g., agreement) concerning the impact of infertility-related stress had significantly lower levels of depression when compared to couples in which females experienced a greater amount of stress than their partners. In terms of marital adjustment, men and women in couples who reported high levels of congruence concerning the impact of infertility-related stress reported significantly higher levels of adjustment when compared to couples who differed in their appraisals of the stress. Treatment implications based on these findings and future research directions are discussed. / Master of Science

An attempt was made to further establish the validity of the Polyfactor Test of Marital Difficulties, a relatively new, yet potentially valuable sentence completion, self-rating marital difficulties test. . Another test, the Marital Adjustment Inventory was also used for comparison purposes.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of v assertive training on the marital adjustment of tho se participating. It was of particular interest to identify the effects of training wives only as compared to training couples jointly in assertiveness. There were a total of 56 subjects sampled for this study, constituting 28 marriages, all investigated for marital adjustment. All of the subjects were volunteers and were obtained through the Women's Center at Utah State University. The subjects were placed in one of two treatment conditions depending upon the condition for which they volunteered. The wives only treatment condition provided assertiveness training exclusively for the wives of the couples participating. Both husbands and wives received training in the couples treatment condition. All of the 56 subjects, both husbands and wives, completed the Marital-Adjustment Test during the first and last session of assertive training. The assertive training groups met for six weeks for two hours each week. An analysis of covariance was used to analyze the data for the first two hypotheses. The pretest scores for both treatment conditions for husbands and wives were held constant and the posttest scores on the Marital-Adjustment Test were compared for both husbands and wives of the other treatment condition. The f test for significant differences in correlations was used to test the following questions: (a) Is there a difference in the amount of correlation of the pretest scores and the posttest scores on the Marital-Adjustment Test for husbands and wives in the wives only treatment condition? and (b) Is there a difference in the amount of correlation of the pretest scores and the posttest scores on the Marital-Adjustment Test for husbands and wives in the couples treatment condition? It may be concluded that there is no advantage for marital adjustment when husbands and wives are both given assertiveness training as opposed to the wife only receiving training. There was a statistical difference (beyond the .01 level of significance) between the correlations of the pretest and posttest scores for husbands and wives in the wives only treatment condition. No difference in amount of correlation was found between pretest and posttest scores on the Marital-Adjustment Test for husbands and wives in the couples treatment condition. It was concluded that when spouses were trained together, no change in perceptions of marital adjustment occurred. When wives were trained alone, perceptions of marital adjustment between spouses was in greater agreement. No evidence was found that marital adjustment was affected by teaching assertion skills to the wife only as opposed to teaching the couple.

This study investigates the relationship between romantic love and marital adjustment in a sample of middle class couples. Romantic love is defined as a general disposition an individual has toward love, marriage, the family, and relationships involving male-female interaction in which the affective component is regarded as primary and all other considerations are excluded from conscious reflection. Marital adjustment is defined as the positive accomodation of husband and wife interacting within the framework of a legally established marital relationship. Middle socioeconomic class is operationally defined as a specific quantitative range on the Warner Index of Social Characteristics. This study examines the nature of any quantifiable relationship between romantic love and marital adjustment, current or future. Three views of this relationship are investigated. The first view contends that romanticism is functional, contributing to positive marital adjustment. The second is characterized by the belief that romantic love has a negative impact upon marital adjustment and is dysfunctional. A third view of the relationship between romantic love and marital adjustment suggests that the critical element determining dysfunctionality is the isparity between partners, rather than the individual level of romanticism. No author has heretofore considered this alternative.