A Contingency Model of Marital Organization in Low Income Families

Abstract

Based on Scanzoni's operationalization of the 'functional requisites for marital organization, the association of nine predictor variables with marital intactness/dissolution is explored. The Automatic Interaction Detector (AID) method of data analysis is utilized with a sample of 512 low income families. Results of the AID analysis show that the associations of the predictor variables with marital intactness are neither linear nor additive. Nevertheless, two variables emerge of overriding importance in explaining marital intactness: mode of decision-making and strategy of conflict resolution. These indicators of the 'family leadership (or polity) dimension of family functioning result in four major divisions of the sample which are labeled as the Autocratic, Semi-Autocratic, Semi-Democratic, and Democratic patterns of marital organization. Problems relating to the task performance (or economy) dimension of marital organization are essentially held constant due to the poverty status of the respondents. Conclusions underscore the realistically complex variety of conditions which can be associated with both intact and dissolved marriages.