Examined relationship between wife employment status and marital adjustment using 27 studies. Most comparisons showed no difference in adjustment between wife groups and between husband groups. Differences that did result tended to favor the non-employed groups. When control measures were introduced the basic finding of no difference between…

Spouses (n=29) engaged in discussions in which husband requested change in wife and wife requested change in husband. Neither conflict structure (who requested change) nor gender was associated with positivity or negativity of spouses' behavior. Husband-demand/wife-withdraw interactions predicted increase in wives' satisfaction one year later;…

Examines the relationship between parental alcoholism, family-of-origin functioning, and current marital satisfaction. Results indicate that family-of-origin functioning is positively related to marital satisfaction. Individuals with alcoholic parents reported lower family-of-origin functioning, and an interaction between gender and parental…

Examines how much attention males and females pay to positive and negative information about their marriages as a function of their belief that the marriage is either in trouble or basically satisfactory. Participants (N=121) viewed and responded to videotapes of couples discussing their problems. Female participants attended more than male…

It is well-established that women do the vast majority of household labor. West and Zimmerman's concept of "doing gender" suggests that sex inequity persists because housework enables women to demonstrate their gendered identities to others. However, changes in gendered norms for housework may be underway because recent studies indicate…

Examined relationship of discrepancy between couple's actual level of intimacy and desired level of intimacy and marital adjustment using data from 185 randomly selected couples. Results revealed that discrepancy between actual and desired intimacy of husbands and wives was highly predictive of marital adjustment. Couples with low intimacy scores…

Examines gender and three aspects of couples' (N=50) marital intimacy using a method establishing both objective and subjective indices of intimacy. Results suggest that high intimacy is based on both understanding and similarity of intimate experience. Women reported higher levels of intimacy and were also better than men in predicting their…

Finds that highly satisfied couples engage in significantly more communication, particularly on certain topics (home life, sexual relationship, and vacations), than do less-satisfied couples. (SR)

Effective communication is a cornerstone of marital happiness. The Couples' Gender-Based Communication Questionnaire is presented as a method for identifying male-female different communication styles. Suggests that once people realize that their partners have different conversational styles, they are inclined to accept difference without blaming…

Sixty marital dyads completed Dyadic Adjustment Scale and participated in problem discussions while using communication box. Intent ratings of distressed wives were significantly more negative than those provided by distressed husbands or by nondistressed wives. Distressed wives predicted that impact of their messages would be more negative than…

Forty-eight married couples completed Snyder's Marital Satisfaction Inventory and were categorized with Bem Sex-Role Inventory as androgynous, gender role congruent, gender role incongruent, or undifferentiated. Found that androgynous couples featured more wives who were dissatisfied regarding child issues. Conceptualized results in terms of…

Used data from 1988 National Survey of Families and Households to examine effects of husbands' and wives' employment and marriage characteristics on their respective perceptions of marital quality. Occupational factors had only minimal effect on both husbands' and wives' perceptions of marital quality. Husbands and wives were both affected by…

Used data from National Survey of Families and Households to investigate associations among gender, employment, and marital happiness for 1,353 couples aged 50+. Employment was not directly related to marital happiness. Wives reported greater participation in household tasks and greater inequity in division of household labor. Perceived fairness…

Explored the appropriateness of using the Dyadic Adjustment Scale's norming criteria to assess level of marital adjustment among a subgroup of Mexican Americans (N=39) and identified intragroup response variability. Results indicated significant differences in scores and intragroup differences between husbands and wives and United States born and…

In rural and urban samples of marital couples, a significant interaction effect between quantity of self-disclosure and quality of self-disclosure was found. Especially for wives, combinations of low quantity and low quality were found to be extremely detrimental for marital satisfaction. (Author/BL)