Marital Satisfaction: A Validation Approach

It was hypothesized that the desire for equity in relationships and the desire for validation from significant others are common human concerns which affect marital relationship satisfaction. Sixty married couples completed a series of questionnaires which assessed equity in 23 areas of the marital relationship, global equity in the marital relationship, relationship satisfaction, perceptions of relationship stability, understanding from spouse, validation from spouse, assistance from spouse in intellectual and emotional growth, frequency of stimulating conversations between the marital pair, frequency of affectionate touching from spouse, and sexual satisfaction in the marital relationship. Subjects who felt validated by their spouses reported more relationship satisfaction, greater relationship stability, more assistance from their spouses in intellectual and emotional growth, and greater sexual satisfaction than did subjects who did not feel validated by their spouses. Overall, equitably treated subjects reported more relationship satisfaction, greater relationship stability, more assistance from spouse in emotional growth, greater sexual satisfaction, and a greater frequency of affectionate touching from their spouses than did inequitably treated subjects. However, these differences between equitably treated and inequitably treated subjects applied primarily to non-validated subjects.