Discriminant function analysis was performed on data from 87 female volunteers who were between the ages of 21 and 53 years old and who had been married at least one time. Sixty-two of the subjects had no history of premarital pregnancy; 18 subjects had been pregnant when they married; and seven subjects had an induced abortion before marriage. All groups were discriminated (p < .05) by the variables of marital adjustment, lack of emotional vulnerability, masculinity, chance locus of control, powerful others locus of control, and number of marriages. Women with a history of premarital pregnancy were less satisfied with their present or most recent marriage and tended to have had more marriages; they also were higher on belief in chance, lower on belief in powerful others, lower on instrumentality and more lacking in emotional vulnerability than were women without history of premarital pregnancy. The two groups with history of premarital pregnancy were discriminated (p < .05) by marital adjustment and lack of emotional vulnerability. Women who married when pregnant were less satisfied with their present or most recent marriage and were more emotionally vulnerable than were women who had abortions prior to marriage.

The current study examined direct and indirect influences of romantic attachment processes, marital adjustment, and the coparenting relationship on family functioning. Data was collected from a community sample of 86 heterosexual couples with a child aged eight to eleven living in the home. Both spouses completed a demographic questionnaire, the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale, the Dyadic Adjustment Scale, the Coparenting Scale, and the Self-Report Family Inventory as part of a larger study on family processes in middle childhood. Data analysis included multilevel modeling, utilizing the actor-partner interdependence model. Results indicated that marital adjustment mediated the association between attachment processes and family functioning, suggesting that a healthy marital relationship is an important variable that helps explain links between attachment security and the family functioning. Findings also highlighted the benefit of conceptualizing adult romantic attachment, marital, and coparental subsystems within a systemic framework.

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 involved 77 couples consisting of mothers and fathers of ADHD children from intact, two-parent families. All ADHD children were between 6 and 16 years old and had been evaluated by a Licensed Practicing Psychologist or Medical Doctor. All mothers and fathers completed three questionnaires - the Conners Parent Rating Scales-48 (Conners, 1973), the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (Spanier, 1976), and a demographic questionnaire. For purposes of this study, Bell's (1981) child effects model was used as a basis for research. This model, as opposed to an adult effects model, supports the thesis that children contribute to their own socialization by influencing the behavior of their caretakers. Recent research suggests that in most families of ADHD children, the primary contributors to parent-child interactive stress appear to emanate from child characteristics, with parental and environmental characteristics playing an important but secondary role (Barkley, 1981a, 1989; Bell & Harper, 1977; Mash & Johnson, 1990; Schachar et al., 1987). The literature supports the investigation of the relationship between interparent agreement on the perceptions of their ADHD children's behavior and self reports of marital satisfaction with regards to the variables of age of the child, gender of the child, severity of the child's behavior, and gender of the parent. As predicted, moderate relationships were found between interparent agreement on child behavior and mothers' and fathers' reports of marital satisfaction, although somewhat higher for mothers. The predicted effects of age of the child and rated severity of child behavior were not supported. When assessing the effec~s of gender of the child, parents of ADHD girls reported slightly more agreement and higher marital satisfaction than parents of ADHD boys. Examination of the predicted differences between mothers and fathers showed that mothers perceived their ADHD children's behavior as slightly more severe and reported slightly lower marital satisfaction than did fathers of ADHD children. / Ph. D.

This is a qualitative study that researches the definition and meaning of resilience in intimate relationships. A constructivist perspective guides the theoretical framework of this study and a systemic approach to intimate relationships provides a theoretical foundation. Apart from an extensive literature survey, three different sources of information were included in this study on relational resilience. Three family therapists were interviewed to gain some understanding of their experiences with couples in distress. Three participant couples examined visual stimuli (excerpts of couple interactions from five films) and discussed their responses and personal experiences in semi-structured interviews. The participants’ themes were analysed through thematic network analysis in order to explore their definitions of resilience in light of their own experiences. It was found that resilience in intimate relationships can be defined as the ability of the couple to endure adversity. It involves the relational capacity to adapt, grow, and recover from adversities and it includes relational processes that allow the couple as a system to rebound from shared difficulties and become more resourceful. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology))

This is a qualitative study that researches the definition and meaning of resilience in intimate relationships. A constructivist perspective guides the theoretical framework of this study and a systemic approach to intimate relationships provides a theoretical foundation. Apart from an extensive literature survey, three different sources of information were included in this study on relational resilience. Three family therapists were interviewed to gain some understanding of their experiences with couples in distress. Three participant couples examined visual stimuli (excerpts of couple interactions from five films) and discussed their responses and personal experiences in semi-structured interviews. The participants’ themes were analysed through thematic network analysis in order to explore their definitions of resilience in light of their own experiences. It was found that resilience in intimate relationships can be defined as the ability of the couple to endure adversity. It involves the relational capacity to adapt, grow, and recover from adversities and it includes relational processes that allow the couple as a system to rebound from shared difficulties and become more resourceful. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology))

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

The present study was an attempt to further investigate what factors contributed to whether married individuals defined their relationship as traditional or nontraditional. The project, moreover, explored what variables affected marital adjustment levels. The variables whose effects were assessed regarding whether married individuals defined their relationship as traditional or nontraditional included self-actualization and presence or absence of children. The factors examined thought to affect marital adjustment levels were self-actualization, subjective definition of the relationship as traditional or nontraditional, and presence or absence of children.

The Marital Interaction Dimension Inventory (MIDI) is an assessment that evaluates marital relationships on seven dimensions; sexuality, self disclosure, emotional affiliation, conflict resolution, power outcome, commitment, and identity. The MIDI provides scores on and individual's actual and desired relationship.

by Nellie Chunhwa Hsu. / Questionnaires in Chinese. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-65). / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.iii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iv / LIST OF TABLES --- p.v / Chapter CHAPTER I 一 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter CHAPTER II 一 --- METHOD --- p.14 / Subjects --- p.14 / Instruments --- p.15 / Procedures --- p.19 / Chapter CHAPTER III 一 --- RESULTS --- p.21 / Factor Analyses --- p.21 / Reliability --- p.22 / Differences between husbands and wives on the variables --- p.23 / Intercorrelations --- p.23 / Multiple Regression Analyses --- p.27 / Analyses on Family Types of the Circumplex Model --- p.29 / Results of Analyses on Paired Coup1es --- p.30 / Chapter CHAPTER IV 一 --- DISCUSSION --- p.32 / FIGURES --- p.41 / TABLES --- p.43 / REFERENCES --- p.58 / APPENDIX --- p.67