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The relationship between sibling-position configuration, sex-role characteristics and marital satisfaction
Abstract
The major purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between sibling-position configuration and marital satisfaction. Another objective was to determine whether or not the relationship between sibling-position configuration and marital satisfaction was affected by the husband's and wife's masculinity and/or femininity. A review of the literature on birth order and marital satisfaction suggested that marriages based on complementary sibling-position configurations seem to experience higher levels of marital satisfaction than those which are based on similar birth-order rankings. The findings of the limited research in this area, however, are far from being conclusive. Although, there are conflicting results, recent conceptualizations and research regarding sex-role orientation suggest that individual's masculinity and femininity levels do correlate with marital satisfaction. The present study was an effort to combine these two areas of research in order to determine the relationship between sibling-position configuration, sex-role characteristics and marital satisfaction. The Marital Satisfaction Scale (MSS) was selected as the criterion measure. One-hundred sixty married couples participated in the study. The Personal Data Inventory was used to gather descriptive data regarding the sample. Ninety-six couples completed, in addition to these instruments, the Bem Sex-Role Inventory, an instrument which can measure masculinity and femininity as separate variables. Multiple regression was the statistical procedure selected to determine predictive abilities of the variables under study. Analysis of variance was used to determine significant differences among the mean MSS scores of the various sibling-position configurations. Results of this study led to the conclusion that there is a relationship between sibling-position configuration and marital satisfaction. Results also indicated that sex-role variables do not contribute significantly to the prediction of marital satisfaction by sibling-position configuration. Only one sex-role variable, husband's masculinity was found to be significantly related to the wife's marital satisfaction. No significant relationship was found between sex-role orientation and husband's marital satisfaction. Finally, the findings of this study indicated that marital satisfaction of the spouse is a powerful predictor of husbands' and wives' level of satisfaction.
Description
Typescript (photocopy).Collections
Citation
Ortiz, Berta Elis (1982). The relationship between sibling-position configuration, sex-role characteristics and marital satisfaction. Texas A&M University. Texas A&M University. Libraries. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /DISSERTATIONS -361657.
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