Magnitude and directional effects of marital sex-role incongruence on marital adjustment.

Abstract

The direction of differences in marital sex-role attitudes was estimated to play an important role in determining the direction of differences on the marital adjustment of husbands and wives. The more egalitarian in marital sex-role orientation the husband was relative to his wife, the better the marital adjustment of both spouses. The less egalitarian he was relative to his wife, the poorer the adjustment. This finding was examined within the historical context of differences in the social power of husbands and wives. A “magnitude-only” measure of marital sex-role attitude incongruence was not related to marital adjustment.