Thesis advisor: Bernard O'Brien / This study investigated factors which influenced stable marriages among twelve Mexican American, working class, Catholic couples from central Texas who had been married at least twenty years, spoke English, and whose youngest child was a minimum of 18 years of age. Each participant was interviewed separately in a retrospective, semi-structured interview that covered selected factors from three different marital stages: 1) initial attraction, early marriage and birth of first child, 2) child-rearing years, and 3) post child-rearing years. The influences of culture, religion, values, finances, and the family of origin were explored to determine their impact on marital stability. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 1994. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Education.

Marital quality is a broad measurement of perceptions of satisfaction, happiness, and stability by partners in an established relationship. Marital quality has been relatively understudied among Mexican Americans, a population that warrants the inclusion of cultural constructs in any model concerning relationship outcomes. Therefore, acculturation differences between Mexican American couples were conceptualized as a distal context for understanding marital quality. Traditional gender role values and communication style (warmth and hostility) were included as proximal contexts. Data from Conger’s California Families Project were utilized; results indicated that while most measures of acculturation did not impact marital quality, language use interacted with gender roles values and communication style to influence husbands’ marital quality. Warmth, hostility, and traditional gender role values all exhibited a significant direct influence on marital quality for both husbands and wives. Potential explanations and recommendations for future directions are discussed.