Effects of marital locus of control on perception of marital quality among wives

Abstract

In order to determine the associations between marital locus of control and marital quality, and also the extent to which this association is moderated by the duration of marriage and marital instability, we examined 1821 wives, 19 to 75 years old. Marital locus of control was measured by the Perceived Efficacy in Solving Intimate Conflict Scale (Fincham & Bradbury, 1987), marital instability was measured by the Martial Instability Index (Booth, Johnson, & Edwards, 1983) and perceived quality of marriage was measured by the Dyadic Adjustment Scale - DAS (Spanier, 1976). The data were analyzed using hierarchical regression analysis. The dependent variables were four DAS subscales (Dyadic Consensus, Dyadic Satisfaction, Affective Expression, and Dyadic Cohesion), and the predictors were entered hierarchically; step 1 included duration of marriage, step 2 assessment of marital instability, and step 3 included perceived efficacy in solving intimate conflicts. The results show that the experience of personal effectiveness in solving marital conflicts among wives is a good indicator of marital satisfaction, and also of the consensus on matters of importance to marital functioning. On the other hand, marital locus of control is not as good indicator of marital cohesion and affective expression between spouses as it is the case with Dyadic Satisfaction and Consensus. Assessment of marital instability to some extent increases the understanding of different aspects of the marital quality, while the contribution of the duration of marriage, although statistically significant, is practically negligible.