Short Marital-Adjustment and Prediction Tests: Their Reliability and Validity

Locke, Harvey J.; Wallace, Karl M H

doi:10.2307/348022

Cited by 2,733 publications

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“…Relationship Quality-At each assessment, overall marital quality was assessed with the 15 item Marital Adjustment Test (MAT; Locke & Wallace, 1959). Higher scores indicated greater relationship quality (range: 2-158).…”

Section: Measures: Predictor Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predictors of heavy drinking and drinking problems over the first 4 years of marriage.

Leonard

Homish

2008

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors

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This study investigated the factors predictive of heavy drinking and drinking problems over the early years of marriage, focusing on the premarital drinking and relatively stable individual risk and protective factors that were present prior to marriage, and on social-interpersonal factors that may change or emerge over marriage. Newlywed couples were assessed at the time of marriage, and at the 1 st , 2 nd , and 4 th anniversaries with respect to frequency of heavy drinking and the extent of drinking problems, and a variety of factors that have been found to be predictive of adult alcohol problems. The results indicated that antisocial characteristics, family history of alcoholism, negative affect, and alcohol expectancies were related to heavy drinking and alcohol problems at the time of marriage. Changes after marriage were predicted by the drinking of one's partner and of one's peers and by alcohol expectancies for social/physical pleasure for both men and women. In addition, the quality of the marriage was longitudinally protective from the experience of alcohol problems for both men and women, although it was not related to changes in heavy drinking. KeywordsAlcohol Problems; Drinking Patterns; Marital Functioning; Partner Influence; Peer Influence Theoretical approaches to excessive drinking and alcohol problems have shifted from risk factor and person-environment interaction models to probabilistic-developmental models (e.g., Zucker, 2004) that incorporate person-environmental interactions into a broader developmental psychopathology approach (Windle & Davies, 1999). These models emphasize an array of biological, psychological, and social processes, sometimes acting in concert and sometimes in opposition to each other. This model argues that alcohol use and alcohol problems both affect and are affected by maturational processes and phase-specific transitional events. As Zucker, Fitzgerald, and Moses (1995) (p. 686). From this perspective, understanding the development of heavy drinking and alcohol problems is fostered by focusing on transitional events, particularly those that introduce, remove, or reorganize the biological, psychological, or social influences on drinking.One of the most important psychosocial transitional events is marriage, an event experienced by more than 70% of men and women by age 35 (Fields, 2003). Marriage carries with it a variety of tasks that can fundamentally alter an individual's view of self, as well as how the broader social network behaves toward the individual and the couple. At the psychological level, there is often a marked shift away from more individualistic values and toward more interdependent and socially positive values, consistent with the adoption of the new role of spouse. There is also often a major reorganization of the social network involving the reestablishment or redefinition of ties, both as individuals and as a couple, with each member's extended family and peer network (Boss, 1983;McGoldrick & Carter, 1982).In addition to these psycho-socia...

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Section: Measures: Predictor Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predictors of heavy drinking and drinking problems over the first 4 years of marriage.

Leonard

Homish

2008

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors

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“…Marital Satisfaction-Parents' marital satisfaction was assessed using the Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Test (MAT; Locke & Wallace, 1959), a widely used measure with demonstrated reliability and validity (Gottman, Markman, & Notarius, 1977). On the MAT, scores below 100 are generally taken as an index of clinical distress.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Violated wishes about division of childcare labor predict early coparenting process during stressful and nonstressful family evaluations

Khazan

McHale

DeCourcey

2008

Infant Mental Health Journal

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Prior research has indicated that expectant parents overestimate the extent to which fathers will take part in the "work" of parenting, with mothers often becoming disenchanted when these expectations are violated following the baby's arrival. In this study, we examine the role of violated wishes concerning childcare involvement in accounting for variability in maternal and paternal marital satisfaction, and in early coparenting behavior as assessed during family-interaction sessions. The results indicate possible negative effects of violated wishes on the enacted family process and confirm previous findings regarding the effects of marital satisfaction. In addition, we uncovered differences in the way that violated maternal wishes are related to coparenting during playful and mildly stressful family interactions.A small, but consistent, body of research has reliably documented the relevance of first-time parents' prenatal wishes and expectancies about family life after the birth of the baby in predicting adjustment quality following the baby's arrival (e.g., Delmore-Ko, Pancer, Hunsberger, & Pratt, 2000;Goldberg & Perry-Jenkins, 2004;Hackel & Ruble, 1992;Kach & McGhee, 1982;Kalmuss, Davidson, & Cushman, 1992;McHale et al., 2004;Ruble, Fleming, Hackel, & Stangor, 1988;Van Egeren, 2004). Most studies indicate that parents-to-be expect a far more egalitarian division of household and childcare labor than will typically ever eventuate (Cowan & Cowan, 1992). In fact, more than one third of all women in a sample reported on by Ruble et al. (1988) expected a fully egalitarian division of labor, and so not surprisingly, many had to confront a significant violation of their prepartum expectations after the baby's arrival. Men, too, are overly optimistic; Belsky (1985) found that the bias anticipating that fathers will be equitably involved in childcare is shown by both parents.Most studies of violated expectancies document consistent negative effects on postpartum marital adjustment. For example, Belsky (1985) reported that especially unrealistic expectations about division of labor in childcare tasks or about the effect that the baby would have on the couple's own relationship and on their relationships with family and friends predicted greater marital dissatisfaction during the early postpartum months. Ruble et al. (1988) found that women assuming significantly more of the house-and childcare burden than anticipated reported the most negative feelings about their husbands' involvement in these tasks, and were more negative when evaluating the effect of the baby on their marital relationship. Hackel and Ruble (1992) showed that women highly wed to prebirth expectations about division of labor reported more negative change in marital satisfaction after transitioning to new parenthood than did women with less prenatal commitment to their expectations.Beyond predicting general declines in marital satisfaction, violated expectations regarding division of childcare-related tasks may have more insidious effects in ...

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“…One questionnaire assessed overall health and functioning using the EuroQol (EuroQol Group, 1990). Another set of questionnaires assessed the participant′s relationships with their family, spouse and child, which included the Marital Adjustment Test (MAT, Locke and Wallace, 1959); Family Environment Scale (FES, Moos and Moos, 1976); and the Parental Affiliative Style Questionnaire (PASQ, Davies et al, 2002;Rohner, 1984). Finally, the participants′ children completed a set of questionnaires which included the Children′s Report of Parent Behaviour Inventory (CRPBI, Margolies and Weintraub, 1977) as a measure of parent-child interaction.…”

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Depression Impairment Scale for Parents (DISP): A new scale for the measurement of impairment in depressed parents

Lewis

Elam

Sellers

et al. 2013

Psychiatry Research

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Short Marital-Adjustment and Prediction Tests: Their Reliability and Validity

Cited by 2,733 publications

References 0 publications

Predictors of heavy drinking and drinking problems over the first 4 years of marriage.

Predictors of heavy drinking and drinking problems over the first 4 years of marriage.

Violated wishes about division of childcare labor predict early coparenting process during stressful and nonstressful family evaluations

The Depression Impairment Scale for Parents (DISP): A new scale for the measurement of impairment in depressed parents

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