Agency and communion in three generations of women and their relation to socialization

Personality clusters of agency (independence, self-protection and self-assertion) and communion (interpersonal sensitivity and nurturant concern for the welfare of others) were studied in three generations of Norwegian women with the expectation that 1) daughters would use mothers rather than fathers as models for both clusters and 2) socialization practices of encouraging independence would be related to agency, while responsiveness, closeness and control would be related to communion in daughters. 32 adult pregnant daughters and their mothers were studied. Agency and communion scores were negatively related within individuals in all 3 generations and each was positively related across the three generations. A, buta greater balance between the two personal qualities was seen in the younger generation of women than in the two older ones. Ospredicted, agency and communion scores for mothers and daughters were positively related in all three generations and fathers' and daughters' scores were unrelated. While agentic mothers were found to have encouraged autonomy, agency in daughters was facilitated by more nondirective-ness by the mother. Communion in daughters was fostered by demand for socially responsible behavior and related to close, controlled, non-individuated relationships to nurturant and confident mothers. Agency was related to more distant and conflicted relationships to non-nurturant and cognitively curious mothers. Agentic daughters were also found to be better educated and in more responsible jobs, while communal daughters were less educated and in more routine jobs. Thus agency was nurtured in challenging and tension producing and communion in close and less stimulating interpersonal environments. When strongly developed, both were associated with liabilities.     

Attachment insecurity,depression, and the transition to parenthood

In a longitudinal study of adult attachment and depression during the transition to parenthood, 76 couples completed questionnaires on three occasions: during the second trimester of pregnancy, and six weeks and six months postbirth. On the first and second occasions, the couples were also interviewed about their experiences of pregnancy and parenthood, respectively. Measures were also completed at similar time intervals by a comparison group of 74 childless couples. Attachment security was assessed in terms of the dimensions of discomfort with closeness and relationship anxiety. Relationship anxiety was less stable for transition wives than for other participants. Relationship anxiety also predicted increases in new mothers’ depressive symptoms, after controlling for a broad range of other risk factors. However, the association between relationship anxiety and maternal depression was moderated by husbands’ caregiving style. Maternal depression was linked to increases in husbands’ and wives’ attachment insecurity and marital dissatisfaction. Results are discussed in terms of the impact of depression and negative working models of attachment on couple interaction.     

Effect of couple illness perception congruence on psychological adjustment in women with rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize similarities and differences in illness perceptions between women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and their husbands, and examine whether illness perception congruence predicted wives' subsequent psychological adjustment. DESIGN: Women with RA and their husbands (N=190 couples) recruited from community and clinical settings completed mailed surveys at baseline and 4-month follow-up. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Data for this investigation included illness perceptions in partners and illness severity, marital variables, and psychological adjustment in wives. RESULTS: In general, wives and husbands had similar views of RA. Couple congruence concerning women's personal control over RA and its cyclic nature predicted better psychological adjustment in women 4 months later. Post hoc tests showed better psychological adjustment in wives from couples with similar optimistic beliefs about personal control, illness coherence, and RA consequences, when compared to those in couples with similar pessimistic beliefs. Furthermore, when partners disagreed about RA's consequences, wives fared better when husbands overestimated rather than underestimated their beliefs. In contrast, couple congruence about the emotions and timeline of RA was unrelated to adjustment. CONCLUSION: It may be important for husbands to understand wives' views on their control over RA and its cyclic nature. Furthermore, wives may benefit when they share optimistic views with their husbands about RA, and when their husbands avoid underestimating RA's consequences. Developing interventions to enhance partners' illness understanding may be beneficial.     

Interspousal Criticism: A Behavioral Mediator Between Husbands’ Gender Role Conflict and Wives’ Adjustment

Seventy-two married couples participated in a study of husband gender role conflict and interpersonal criticism and wife psychological and marital adjustment. Participants were recruited from a community in the Midwestern USA. Husband criticism was measured using self-report, wife-report, and trained coder ratings of an audiotaped task in which husbands described their wives and their relationship with their wives. Hypothesized associations between husband gender role conflict and husband interspousal criticism were supported. In addition, all three measures of husband criticism were found to mediate the relationship between husband gender role conflict and wife marital adjustment. However, only self- and wife-reported criticism by husbands significantly mediated the relationship between husband gender role conflict and wife depressive symptoms.     

GENDER'S ROLE IN RESPONSES TO INFERTILITY

Infertility is a major life stressor that affects approximately 10% of U.S. married couples. Infertile women and men have reported experiencing depression, helplessness, and marital strain. Given U.S. society's emphasis on women's role as mothers, it has been suggested that women's lives are more disrupted by infertility than those of men. This hypothesis was supported in a survey of 185 infertile couples and 90 presumed fertile couples. Infertile wives, as compared to their husbands, perceived their fertility problem as more stressful, felt more responsible for and in control of their infertility, and engaged in more problem-focused coping. Infertile husbands experienced more home life stress and lower home life performance than did their wives. These differences were not found for presumed fertile couples. Both infertile and presumed fertile wives experienced more depression, more sexual dissatisfaction, and lower self-esteem than did their husbands. Theoretical and counseling implications of these findings are discussed.     

POWER AND INFLUENCE STRATEGIES IN VIOLENT AND NONVIOLENT MARRIAGES

How important is the use of physical violence in determining the balance of power within marriage? Do women in violent marriages make more use of indirect strategies in attempting to persuade their husbands than do women in nonviolent marriages? Is marital satisfaction related to influence styles? These questions are investigated by looking at decision making in couples and how this is related to the forms of influence strategies used by wives and husbands in violent and nonviolent marriages. Data from in-depth structured interviews with 137 self-identified battered wives and 137 comparison wives, some of whom were also found to have experienced violence from their husbands, are used to answer these questions. Results indicated that women with violent husbands used more influence strategies overall, although these women had less overall power in terms of decision making than did women with nonviolent husbands. The relationship of influence strategies to decision making was different for women with violent husbands than for those whose husbands were not violent. As expected, the use of coercive strategies related negatively to marital happiness, whereas positive strategies were positively predictive. Violence and other negative strategies should be included in future research on influence strategies in close relationships, and a positive-negative dimension should be included as a way of categorizing influence strategies.     

Perceptions of marital interaction and change during pregnancy: A typological approach

Much of the literature on the transition to parenthood suggests that pregnancy and childbirth arc associated with decreases in marital satisfaction. Recent developments, however, demonstrate that this decrease in couples' satisfaction may be complicated by a number of factors. Among other things, the way couples interact may play a central role in their adjustment to the changes typically associated with pregnancy and childbirth. The purpose of this study was to examine whether couples who espouse varying patterns of interaction also have differing experiences of changes in marital needs and concerns during pregnancy. Couples (N= 190) enrolled in childbirth classes completed a series of questionnaires including Fitzpatrick's Relational Dimensions Instrument and a measure assessing perceived changes in their marital needs and concerns. Results indicated that husbands and wives differed in terms of the amount of nurturance they felt they gave and received, their tendency to worry since pregnancy, and their views concerning their sexual relationship. When changes in needs and concerns were compared across the various couple types, a number of patterns emerged. Wives in Traditional, Separate/Traditional, and Separate/Independent marriages felt they received significantly more nurturance since pregnancy than did wives in Independent marriages. Husbands in Separate/Traditional relationships noted greater increases in worrying than did other husbands. Finally, although couples varied in the frequency of conflict reported, they did not differ with regard to changes in conflict or the influence of such changes on their marriages.     

The relationships of career salience,attitudes toward women,and demographic and family characteristics to marital adjustment in dual-career couples

Facilitation of women's increasing involvement and satisfaction in career pursuits necessitates understanding of ways in which multiple roles may be managed and integrated by both women and men. Accordingly, the present study was designed to investigate predictors of levels of marital adjustment in dual-career couples. Both husbands and wives in 42 dual-career couples completed Greenhaus' Career Salience scale, the Attitudes toward Women scale, the Dyadic Adjustment scale, and a demographic information questionnaire. Results indicated, first, that the dual-career couples studied reported relatively high levels of marital adjustment, relatively profeminist attitudes toward women, and moderate levels of career salience; family interests were ranked as more important than were career interests. Second, higher levels of marital adjustment in both husbands and wives were found in couples in which the wife was more highly educated and which had relatively high combined incomes. In addition, greater marital adjustment in husbands was related to higher levels of career salience among wives. Contrary to expectation, husbands' attitudes toward women's roles were unrelated to their levels of marital adjustment. Implications for further research on dual-career couples and for the successful integration of career and family roles are discussed.     

The decision to return to college: Role concepts,personality, attitudes,and significant others

In two studies, personality, role concepts, and attitudes distinguished wives and mothers who decided to resume college from those who did not. College women and women about to resume college had more self-actualizing, achievement-oriented, and dominant personalities (California Psychological Inventory); broader, more personalized role concepts; more liberal attitudes; better educated husbands; and fewer children than housewives. Measurements before college return and during the second year at college indicated that college exposure did not significantly affect these variables. The single exception was that after college exposure, women no longer saw society as supporting their efforts to actualize their potentials.A version of this paper was presented at the 83rd Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Chicago, August 31, 1975.     

夫妻依恋风格、婚姻归因与婚姻质量的关系

本研究采用主—客体互倚模型(actor-partner interdependence model,APIM)的方法深入探讨夫妻的依恋风格、婚姻归因与自身及配偶感知到的婚姻质量之间的关系。以方便取样的方式在北京地区选取155对夫妻,采用Brennan等(1998)编制的亲密关系经历量表(ECR),Stander编制的婚姻归因量表(MAQ)和Spanier编制的婚姻质量问卷(DAS),要求夫妻双方分别报告其依恋风格、婚姻归因方式和感知到的婚姻质量。通过配对t检验、相关分析和结构方程模型分析发现:(1)夫妻对婚姻质量的总体知觉较为一致,但丈夫的婚姻满意度显著高于妻子;(2)夫妻双方在回避依恋和焦虑依恋两个分量表上不存在显著差异,但在婚姻归因上,妻子比丈夫表现出了更多的消极归因;(3)妻子的消极依恋显著地负向预测自身感知到的婚姻质量,而丈夫的消极依恋对自身感知到的婚姻质量没有显著影响;(4)在控制了丈夫、妻子的依恋风格、归因方式对其自身婚姻质量的主体效应之后,丈夫的依恋风格不能显著预测妻子感受到的婚姻质量,但其归因方式可以显著地预测妻子感受到的婚姻质量;然而妻子的归因方式并不能显著预测丈夫的婚姻质量。     

The influence of cultural expectations on mother-child relationships in Japan

This study examines cultural pressures on mothering and child development in Japan and the historical background of the patriarchical family system. Particularly during the period of rapid economic growth after World War II, gender based division of labor become more stark as women were expected only to be good wives and mothers. However, many mothers face difficulties in motherhood, feeling restricted in their role, incompetent as parents, and in search of an identity aside from being mothers. Research data related high levels of maternal stress created by such difficulties to children having less secure attachments. The influence of maternal stress was buffered among mothers who reported high levels of marital harmony, and children with such mothers were just as secure as those with mothers who had low levels of stress. The function of emotionality in families is discussed in order to discern the role of parenting stress. Cultural attitudes towards mothers are questioned and criticized, in reference to research studies on maternal psychological functioning and child development.     

Marital conflict and acculturation among Mexican American husbands and wives

This study examined the relationship between acculturation and multiple dimensions of marital conflict among Mexican American husbands and wives. Participants were 151 husbands and wives who were recruited from a health maintenance organization in northern California and individually interviewed. More acculturated husbands and wives engaged in less avoidance of conflict and were more expressive of their feelings in an argument. Husbands who were more acculturated reported more conflict concerning sex and consideration for the other. Bicultural and more acculturated husbands reported that their wives were more verbally and physically aggressive, compared with mono-Mexican husbands. The findings provide evidence that more acculturated husbands and wives are involved in more direct expressions of conflict in their marriages, compared with less acculturated husbands and wives.     

Spouse criticism and support: their association with coping and psychological adjustment among women with rheumatoid arthritis

Examined whether psychological adjustment of women with rheumatoid arthritis would be related to the support and criticism the patient received from the husband. Interviews were conducted with the husbands of 103 women with rheumatoid arthritis. Spouse interviews were content coded for critical remarks. Wives completed a revised version of the Ways of Coping Scale and a scale of the perceived supportiveness of the spouse. Husbands completed rating scales assessing their perceived vulnerability to illness and the degree of burden they experienced in providing assistance to their wives. Path analyses revealed that patient adjustment was significantly related to the attitude of the spouse. Patients with a highly critical spouse engaged in more maladaptive coping behaviors and reported a poorer psychological adjustment. Independent of spousal criticism, patients who perceived their spouse as being supportive engaged in more adaptive coping. A path model was fit to the data that suggested that the spouse may affect adjustment indirectly through influencing the patient's selection of adaptive or maladaptive coping responses.     

Emotional involvement in marriage during the last trimester of the first pregnancy: a comparison of husbands and wives

This study examined the emotional involvement of 27 husbands and wives in their marriage relationships during the stressful period of the last trimester of the first pregnancy. Four behavioral dispositions indicated a state of high emotional involvement in the marriage: striving to gratify interpersonal needs primarily through the marital relationship; needing to receive affection and desiring to provide support; desiring to satisfy these needs in a mutually satisfying way; and becoming irritated and hostile when maritally dissatisfied. The results show, according to all indicators except the desire to support one's spouse, that husbands were less emotionally involved in the marital relationship than wives. The finding that husbands showed a low level of emotional involvement in marriage supports Laws's (1971) suggestion that husbands' mode of being-in-the-marriage is basically unresponsive to changes and stresses in the family.     

Effects of Marital Distress on Turkish Adolescents’ Psychological Adjustment

This research explores the effects of parental marital distress on Turkish adolescents’ psychological adjustment, as mediated by adolescents’ perceptions of maternal and paternal acceptance–rejection. This issue has generated considerable interest within the United States, but only recently internationally. The study draws from a sample of 180 12- through 18-year-old Turkish adolescents (94 females and 86 males; mean age of 16 years) and their parents. Assessments of the level of husbands’ and wives’ marital distress were made using the Turkish language version of the Intimate Partner Acceptance–Rejection/Control Questionnaire IPAR/CQ. Adolescents’ perceptions of the level of parental acceptance were made using the mother and father forms of the Child Parental Acceptance–Rejection/Control Questionnaire. Adolescents’ psychological adjustment was assessed using the child version of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire. Mediation analyses revealed that adolescents’ perceptions of both maternal and paternal acceptance mediated the relationship between the adolescents’ (both sons’ and daughters’) psychological adjustment and wives’ perceptions of their husbands’ acceptance. Thus, the spillover hypothesis was partially supported as was one of the central postulates of parental acceptance–rejection theory.     

Maternal adjustment during pregnancy and the infant''s first year

The study aimed at establishing the predictive validity of clinical observations and interview data collected during late pregnancy. 40 pregnant women from a Swedish non-risk population were interviewed about psychological and somatic well-being, significant relationships and delivery expectations. Pregnancy adjustment was also assessed by the maternal health clinic midwife. After the birth of the child, the mothers were interviewed in the delivery hospital and during home visits when the infants were 2 and 6 weeks, and 4, 8 and 12 months old. The results showed that pregnancy adjustment, as assessed by the mothers themselves, acted as a significant predictor of the early maternal adjustment and the adjustment towards the end of the infant's first year. The midwives' assessments significantly predicted maternal adjustment towards the end of the first year. Pregnancy data did not correlate with maternal delivery experiences.     

Emotional Involvement in Marriage During the Last Trimester of the First Pregnancy: A Comparison of Husbands and Wives

This study examined the emotional involvement of 27 husbands and wives in their marriage relationships during the stressful period of the last trimester of the first pregnancy. Four behavioral dispositions indicated a state of high emotional involvement in the marriage: (a) striving to gratify interpersonal needs primarily through the marital relationship; (b) needing to receive affection and desiring to provide support; (c) desiring to satisfy these needs in a mutually satisfying way; and (d) becoming irritated and hostile when maritally dissatisfied. The results show, according to all indicators except the desire to support one's spouse, that husbands were less emotionally involved in the marital relationship than wives. The finding that husbands showed a low level of emotional involvement in marriage supports Laws's (1971) suggestion that husbands' mode of being-in-the-marriage is basically unresponsive to changes and stresses in the family.     

Social support in spouses of cancer patients: What do they get and to what end?

Using a retrospective design, the authors assessed several different aspects of social support (perceived, received, satisfaction with received, and support seeking) in 95 spouses of cancer survivors. The goals of the investigation were to (a) describe in detail the differences between husbands and wives on these support dimensions and (b) explore whether the relation between support and adjustment was different for husbands as compared to wives. While husbands and wives were generally similar-in their general perceptions of available support and in the amount of support they reported seeking, consistent with our hypothesis, compared to husbands of breast cancer victims, wives of prostate cancer victims reported receiving more support and being more satisfied with the support they received. Measures of social support predicted husbands’reports of marital satisfaction and adjustment, but not wives’reports. Partial correlation analyses indicated that sex differences in these support-adjustment links were not attributable to differences in age, or in the time between completing treatment and participating in the study. Sex differences observed in the present study are interpreted as highlighting the need for theory development to account for the complex mechanisms underlying links between supportive transactions and marital satisfaction and adjustment.     

Neuroticism and marital satisfaction: the mediating role played by the sexual relationship

Why is Neuroticism so harmful to marriage and other intimate relationships? Given that such relationships generally involve a sexual component, the current longitudinal study explored whether the apparent negative impact of own and partner's Neuroticism on marriage could be explained by dissatisfaction with the sexual relationship. Just after their weddings, 72 couples reported their marital satisfaction, sexual satisfaction, and Neuroticism. One year later, they again reported their marital and sexual satisfaction. Own Neuroticism predicted lower levels of concurrent marital and sexual satisfaction among husbands and wives, declines in sexual satisfaction among husbands and wives, and declines in marital satisfaction among wives. Partner's Neuroticism predicted lower levels of concurrent marital satisfaction among husbands and wives, lower levels of concurrent sexual satisfaction among husbands, and declines in sexual satisfaction among husbands. Consistent with predictions, sexual satisfaction mediated every effect of own and partner Neuroticism on marital satisfaction. Results highlight the prominent role played by the sexual relationship in accounting for marital outcomes and thus suggest specific processes through which Neuroticism may affect the marriage.     

Stability and Change in Family-of-Origin Recollections Over the First Four Years of Parenthood

This article, one of several from a longitudinal family study, examines stability and change in family-of-origin recollections. Family-of-origin data were collected by means of a questionnaire from both husbands and wives prior to the birth of their first child and 4½ years later. The questionnaire probed the subjects’ recollections of their relationships with their mothers and fathers and of their parents’ marital relationships. With median correlations for the women and men of .70 and .72, family-of-origin recollections appear relatively stable over this 4½-year period. One exception to the relative stability was that women recalled their fathers and the closeness of their parent's marriage less positively after 4 years of parenthood. These changes in women's recollections were related to contemporaneous experiences with husbands’ depression and qualities of the husband's parenting.