Sex-Role Orientation and Marital Adjustment

Abstract

The relationship between sex-role orientation and marital adjustment was investigated. Using a sample of 112 married couples, husbands and wives separately completed the Bem Sex-Role Inventory and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale. It was hypothesized that an androgynous sex-role orientation, which incorporates both instrumental and expressive capacities, would be most positively related to self and spousal marital adjustment, while an undifferentiated orientation would be least related. Results indicated that in general both androgynous and sex-typed individuals and their spouses were significantly higher in marital adjustment than were undifferentiated individuals and their spouses. In addition, spousal sex-role types were found to be related and couples in which both partners were classified as undifferentiated reported the lowest levels of marital adjustment while androgynous couples and sex-typed couples reported greater levels of marital adjustment. Results are discussed in relation to support for a symbolic interaction/role theory interpretation of the association between sex-role orientation and marital adjustment.

Spouses’ gender-typed attributes and their links with marital quality: A pattern analytic approach

“…Both androgynous and gender-typed couples have been written about extensively and empirically examined in cross-sectional studies of younger couples. However, less theoretical and empirical attention has been given to undifferentiated types, the largest group to emerge in our analysis (Davidson & Sollie, 1987). Although spouses in the undifferentiated couples group averaged instrumental and expressive scores below the sample median, their scores were above the midpoint of the scale.…”

Gravidez do primeiro filho: papéis sexuais, ajustamento conjugal e emocional

“…Esse resultado já está razoavelmente validado nessa linha de pesquisa. Pesquisadores (Antill, 1983;Baucom & Aiken, 1984;Davidson & Sollie, 1987;Isaac & Shah, 2004;Juni & Grimm,1994;Kurdek & Schmitt, 1986;Lamke, 1989;Murstein & Williams, 1983;Zammichieli & cols., 1988), em variados contextos, têm encontrado escores mais elevados em ajustamento conjugal para os andróginos do que para outros tipos de papéis. Ao mesmo tempo, estudos, tais como Davidson e Sollie (1987), mostraram que indivíduos classifi cados como indiferenciados são mais dispostos ao desajustamento.…”

“…No pré-natal, não foi encontrada relação entre os papéis sexuais e o ajustamento conjugal. Destarte, nas últimas décadas, diversos estudos, em contextos variados (Antill, 1983;Baucom & Aiken, 1984;Davidson & Sollie, 1987;Juni & Grimm, 1993Lamke, 1989;Langis, Sabourin, Lussier & Mathieu, 1994;Murstein & Williams, 1983;Zammichieli & cols., 1988), têm descoberto que o ajustamento conjugal está associado com papéis sexuais.…”

Research on the Marital Relationship: A Critical Review

“…Many of the advances in measurement occurred during the past two decades (e.g., Norton, 1983;Roach, Frazier, & Bowden, 1981;Sabatelli, 1984;Schumm, Nichols, Schectman, & Grigsby, 1-983;Snyder, 1979;Spanier, 1976). Also during this period, research models have been expanded to include a greater diversity ofindependent variables, including such individual characteristics as sex-role orientation and personality traits (Bowen, 1-989;Bowen & Orthner, 1983;Davidson & Sollie, 1987;Li & Caldwell, 1987;Schonnesson, 1987), relationship variables such as commirmenr (Scanzoni & Arnett, 1987;Swanson & Trahaug, 1985), and leisure activity (Holman & Jacquart, 1988). Most of these researchers have been interested in identifying correlates which may explain more of the variation in marital quality and satisfaction.…”