Marital power and quality of marriage

Abstract

The paper presents data gathered through a study of 1058 spouses and explores the relationship between marital power (the ability to control without resistance) and quality of marriage. Marital power is measured by means of the indicators ‘control’ (who is the boss?), decision-making (who makes the most important decisions?), conflict resolution (who has the final say when disagreements arise?), and relative resources (who contributes more to marriage?). Quality of marriage was measured in terms of marital tensions and marital happiness. The findings show that (a) marital power is not associated with quality of marriage; (b) the vast majority of spouses perceive the power structure of their marriage as close to their ideal; (c) democratic and non-democratic spouses report in equal proportions that the power of their marriage is close to (or distant from) their ideal; and (d) perceived closeness of real to ideal power is positively associated with quality of marriage. Implications for social policy are discussed.