PSYCHOSOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF MARITAL QUALITY AMONG MARRIED COUPLES

Abstract

The main objective of present study was to find out the psychosocial determinants of marital quality among married couples living in Rawalpindi and Islamabad (Pakistan). The study also aimed to test the proposed models of relationships between psychosoial factors and marital quality through Structural Equation Modeling. Further, the role of demographic variables i. e., gender, financial status, family system, number of children and education was also probed. Dyadic Adjustment Scale (Spanier, 1976), Dimensions of Commitment Inventory (Adams and Jones, 1997), Trait Forgivingness Scale (Berry, Worthington, O'Connor, Parrott, & Wade, 2005), Communication Patterns Questionnaire(Christensen and Sullaway, 1984), and Husbands ’And Wives’ Emotion Work scale (Erickson, 1993), Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory (Rahim, 1983), The Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised Questionnaire (Fraley, Waller, and Brennan, 2000), Eros and Storge sub-scales of the short form of the Love Attitude Scale (Hendrick, Hendrick, and Dicke, 1998) were identified to measure the constructs of the study. The research was carried out in three phases. Phase I aimed to find out the definition and determinants of marital quality in our culture. Four focus groups revealed commitment, forgiveness, communication patterns, marital emotion work, conflict handling, attachment, friendship, romance, education, children, financial status, duration of marriage, and family system as important determinants of marital quality. Phase II aimed to measure the psychometric properties of all the scales. Measures were validated through CFA and EFA for the Pakistani sample. The findings suggested some modifications in instruments for Pakistani sample. Internal consistency was also 16 determined through alpha coefficients and item total correlations. Phase III aimed to find out the relationship between psychosocial factors and marital quality. The sample was consisted of 616 married individuals (308 couples). Step wise regression analysis suggested significant positive prediction of marital quality by constructive communication, marital emotion work, commitment to spouse and marriage and romance. Significant gender differences were also found. Finally, role of each psychosocial determinant was thoroughly examined using various non-recursive path models. In fact the predicted paths were tested in combined models for husbands and wives using Structural Equation Modeling which was executed through Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS) 18. Findings showed that when forgiveness, attachment, commitment, conflict handling or demographic variables were predictors; husbands’ marital quality was more pertinent than wives’ marital quality to enhance couples marital quality. On the other hand when love, marital emotion work or communication patterns were predictors; wives’ marital quality was more pertinent than husbands’ marital quality to enhance couples marital quality. In the end two conclusive models were made by combining the best fit models and tested through path analysis. It was interesting to note that many psychosocial variables that significantly predicted marital quality became insignificant when they were seen in combination with all other significant predictors. Implications of the present study are discussed under Pakistani cultural and theoretical framework for future research directions.