The Prediction Of Marital Satisfaction Among Dual Career Couples With Children By Instrumental And Expressive Personality Traits And Marital Role Strain

Author : Elizabeth Louise Wachowich
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (143 download)

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Download or read book Role Competence and Marital Satisfaction of Dual-career Couples written by Elizabeth Louise Wachowich and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dual-career family, in which both husband and wife pursue careers and yet seek to maintain a family life, is an emergent family phenomenon that has recently become of interest to researchers in the area of family patterns. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role structure chosen by these couples. Individual role competence was the central concern of the research. Of special concern was the relative influence of self and spousal role competence in identified marital roles on the respondents' perception of satisfaction with the marriage. The investigation was done by replicating a previous study done by F. Ivan Nye (1970). In addition, additional variables were added in an extended analysis to go beyond the replication data. Social exchange theory was used as a conceptual frame work for the study. This framework allowed the researcher to look at the costs and rewards associated with competent or incompetent role enactment within the social context in which the individuals performed. It proposes that competent role enactment is rewarding and that individuals who are perceived as competent or who perceive themselves as compe tent marital role enactors will be likely to be satisfied with their marriages. A sample of forty-four dual-career couples was obtained from urban Alberta areas. All couples were actively com mitted to demanding careers and were also involved in family life, presently raising at least one child under sixteen. Data was collected as part of a study of problem solving behavior of dual-career couples. The role analysis included role responsibility, importance of and satisfaction with role enactment, as well as self and spousal role compe tence. A global measure of marital satisfaction was included. Multiple regression was the statistical technique used in the analysis. First, a direct replication of Nye's study was run, using only spousal competence in specified marital roles as indicators of personal marital satisfaction. Second, an extended analysis was done, adding variables that the researcher felt would better describe the dual-career role pattern. Also, in this second analysis, both self and spousal role competencies were considered as predictors of marital satisfaction. Generally, the dual-career couples indicated much more of their marital satisfaction to be a result of role compe tence than did Nye's random sample of spouses. A major finding of the analyses was also that competence in the therapeutic role was the major predictor of marital satis faction for both men and women in dual-career marriages. This supported Nye's earlier findings, but the influence was much stronger in the dual-career marriages investigated. A perception of general role competence did not appear to be as good a predictor of marital satisfaction for these individuals as did role specific competencies.