His and her marital satisfaction: The double standard

Despite the wealth of research on marital satisfaction, little is known about the cross-effects of husband and wife variables on the satisfaction of the self, on the one hand, and the spouse, on the other. The study presents a model that simultaneously examines the direct and indirect effects of several sociocultural factors on the satisfaction of each spouse. In a sample of 206 Israeli couples, linear structural relationships path analysis revealed two dominant effects: the husband's liberalism and his desire to marry. The more liberal his attitudes and the stronger that desire, the greater the marital satisfaction of both spouses. Men were more satisfied when they themselves held liberal views and when their wives held conservative ones. Premarital cohabitation and the pattern of spouse selection had little effect on marital satisfaction, implying that arranged marriages and autonomous choice constitute symmetric options.In part, the study reported here is based on a doctoral dissertation (1988) prepared for the Department of Education, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel. This research was supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation received through the Israel Foundations Trustees. The author is grateful to Prof. Dafna Izraeli, Prof. Fern Kramer-Azima, Dr. Ruth Katz, and Dr. Yoav Lavee for their insightful comments, and to Helen Hogri for her editorial assistance.