The interaction of spirituality with marital interpersonal relationships: A structural equation model investigation
Abstract
The purpose of the study is to explore the relationship of spirituality and marital interpersonal relationships from within a Human Ecology Theory framework. Utilizing Structural Equation Modeling with LISREL version 8, a series of three models were tested. A regressive model tested the correlation between the construct Spirituality, which was defined by three spirituality instruments, Religious Orientation Scale, Quest Scale and the God Image Scale, and the construct Marital Interpersonal Relationship (MIR) which was defined by three subscales, Closeness, Communication, and Conflict Resolution, from the ENRICH instrument. The next model utilized Multi-Group Analysis (MGA) to test gender differences between husbands' and wives' responses to Spirituality and MIR. The last model explored the mutual influence between husbands' and wives' Spirituality, as well as husbands' and wives' MIR. The results of the study indicated that there is a strong significant correlation between the spirituality of the 157 couples participating in the study and their self-reported perception of their MIR. The factor loading on both the constructs of Spirituality and MIR provided useful information on how the sample interpreted both factors. The MGA indicated that there were no gender differences in the data. The interpretation of this result was presented from a Human Ecology perspective. The analysis from the multiple path results demonstrated a significant correlation between the husband's spirituality and the wife's spirituality, and between the husband's MIR and the wife's MIR. The model failed to demonstrate any significant paths between the husband's spirituality and the wife's MIR and vice versa. The result provided guidelines for additional research in the topic of spirituality, as well as clinical application for integrating spirituality with couple counseling from a Human Ecology framework.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Sprenkle, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Psychotherapy|Families & family life|Personal relationships|Sociology|Social psychology|Religion
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