THE IMPORTANCE OF STRESSORS AND COPING RESOURCES TO THE SUBJECTIVE EVALUATION OF MARITAL QUALITY

WILLIAM THOMAS SOUTHERLY, Purdue University

Abstract

Though there have been a large number of studies involving stress and health, there are two areas which have been neglected. First, until recently there has been little concern for variables which may serve to lessen the impact of stressors. Second, the research has almost entirely been concerned with the impact of stress upon individual adjustment. There have been no major studies which have attempted to explore the impact of cumulative stress upon the marital relationship. This project sprung from these deficits in our understanding about systemic factors affected by stress especially marital quality and the belief that individual adjustment to stress parallels marital adjustment to stress. The study utilized a Chicago-based sample collected by Leonard Pearlin of the National Institute of Mental Health. A clustering sampling technique was utilized to collect the sample of respondents aged 18 to 65. The 1591 respondents consisted of the married subjects of an original sample of 2299 respondents. The major forms of analyses were correlational analysis, factor analysis and multiple regression analysis with two different components of marital quality (positive and negative feelings towards the marital relationship) serving as the dependent variables. The independent variables consisted of 16 factors from the following categories of variables: (1) marital strain; (2) social support; (3) coping strategies; (4) psychological resources; and (5) demographic resources. Several abbreviated versions of Holmes and Rahe's Social Readjustment Scale were also utilized. Generally, the following conclusions emerged: (1) affectionate and supportive spouses tend to be associated with lower levels of negative affect and higher levels of positive affect in the marriage; (2) individuals who stay busy when confronted by problems tend to have higher levels of negative feelings towards their marital relationships; (3) individuals who have sought marital advice from several sources within the last year tend to report lower levels of positive feelings and higher levels of negative feelings about their marital relationships; (4) individuals who have higher levels of negative self-attitudes and who rate their spouses as selfish tend to report higher negative affect in their marriages; (5) marital partners who indicate they have little control over what goes on in their lives tend to have higher levels of negative feelings towards their marriages; (6) individuals who adopt strategies of ignoring problems and who have experienced large numbers of life events in the last two years tend to report higher levels of negative emotions in their marriages; (7) females tend to report higher levels of negative feelings towards their marriages than males; (8) individuals who indicate they have litle control over their lives and who also rate their spouses as being selfish tend to report lower levels of positive feelings in their marriages; (9) higher positive self-attitudes and lower negative self-attitudes tend to be associated with higher levels of positive emotions towards the marital relationship; (10) whites tend to report higher levels of positive affect in their marriages than nonwhites; and (11) individuals who rate their neighborhoods highly tend to rate their marriages highly as well. Finally, the results were discussed with regard to the major implications they have for several areas and groups. The areas and groups include: (1) the major categories of variables; (2) the major theoretical models; (3) the marital strain and marital quality conceptualization; (4) practitioners and educators; (5) computer simulation models; and (6) major recommendations.

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Families & family life|Personal relationships|Sociology

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