Reviews the development of the Marital Satisfaction Scale (MSS), designed to assess one's level of satisfaction toward his/her own marriage. Research results indicate that the instrument has very high internal consistency, sufficient test-retest reliability and validity, and a low degree of contamination with social desirability. (Author)

Found that parental hitting, reported by 17 percent of the sample, failed to affect attitudes about women's roles. Behavior did affect attitudes concerning the use of violence against women. Suggests men are more likely to approve of violence against women if they observed their fathers hitting their mothers. (Author)

Examines the Social Security benefit inequities between male and female workers and between one- and two-earner families and traces the cause of such disparities. Discusses the evolution of today's Social Security System and presents two proposals for a possible reform of the system. (CT)

Couples (N=336) were interviewed for their perceptions of the fairness of their own and their spouses's efforts in the family roles of cooking, housekeeping, provider, companion, and parent. Perceived equity in family roles tended to increase over the life cycle for both husbands and wives, but some differences existed. (Author)

Written transcripts of spouses' discussions were coded using two different systems. Findings indicate that the results obtained from one coding system cannot easily be compared with results obtained from the other system. Author calls for resolution of differences in coding procedures if relational communication research is to be usefully…

Evaluated the effectiveness of spouse training for long-term weight loss. Overweight women (N=68) were assigned to one of five groups. The cooperative spouse group lost significantly more weight. That group and the nonparticipating spouse conditions maintained their weight losses at the final follow-up. The wives-alone group regained some weight.…

Examined the reliability of spouses as observers of the behaviors that occur in their own marital relationships. Distressed and nondistressed couples collected data in the home. Across the entire checklist, nondistressed couples exhibited significantly greater consensus than did distressed couples, based on both percentage agreement and kappa.…

Hierarchical incongruities in a marriage can occur when a spouse develops a symptom in an attempt to balance the division of power in the couple. The therapist must organize the couple so that the division of power is balanced, and the couple is organized in a congruous hierarchy. (Author)

Distressed couples were more critical of each other and less responsive to each other's influence efforts. Distressed and nondistressed couples were similar in their frequencies of inquiries and solution proposals. Criticism and responsiveness were important predictors of both satisfaction with outcomes and attainment of resolutions. (Author)

No evidence was found for any effect of wives' employment or degree of interest in their work activity on marital adjustment and companionship. The extensive controversy over wives' increasing labor-force participation has resulted from unwarranted assumptions about the impact of wives' working on marital adjustment. (Author)

Data support the importance of economic necessity and occupational potential but not the effects of status compatibility or status enhancement. Beyond effects of age, children, and the need for income, occupational prestige potential explains almost half again as much variance as the other variables. (Author)

Findings suggest that older couples, those married longer, those among whom at least one spouse has an established career, and those who are freed from childrearing responsibilities find the lifestyle less stressful. Also, women may be more comfortable with the arrangement because of the recognition of their rights. (Author)

The sequence of planning was the same for all groups and included a resource-planning stage followed by a relationship-planning stage. Retirement programs for rural couples should focus on those in their forties and should involve both spouses and family members. (Author/JAC)

This investigation of married student couples found significant relationships between marital adjustment and people-oriented and success-oriented values systems for individual spouses. Congruency of values systems and marital adjustment for couple units was not found. (Author)

Marriages of respondents that ended in divorce were not as good as marriages of other couples they had known nor did the marriage meet expectations held prior to entering into the relationship. The most frequent problem was unfaithfulness. (Author)