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The Relationship Between Marital Satisfaction, Family Relation And Psychological Distress
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Support
is another interactional process that predicts marital satisfaction
(Lawrence et al., 2008). Studies showed that what spouses consider to be
an appropriate expression of support differs by gender. According to
Graham, Fischer, Crawford, Fitzpatrick, and Bina (2000), for wives the
amount of support affects marital satisfaction more than support
adequacy, while for husbands the support adequacy tends to be the more
important factor. Moreover, social support was also found to be
especially important for the marital adjustment of women with children,
but not for their husbands.
Components and mechanisms of marital satisfaction
Cognition
In
trying to understand or perceive whether a spouse’s behaviour is
beneficial, cognitions, or in a much simpler term, thoughts about the
person’s behaviour is important and is deemed necessary. If one’s spouse
performs negatively, this may be attributed either to the internal
characteristics of the spouse, or instead to circumstances that are
present around the spouse which may have contributed to his/her
behaviour (for example, the reason behind his continuous moodiness is
because he hasn’t been paid his salary for a long time now( Buss, 2005) .
In the marriage and. by extension, marital satisfaction, attributing
costly or negative behaviour to the internal characteristics. Rather
than to circumstances surrounding his or her behaviour, is often
associated with decreased marital satisfaction, as well as marital
deterioration. These wrong attributions occur more often with negative
behaviours in marital problem-solving discussion, and these attributions
do not appear to be as a result of either partner being in a depressed
state, having a neurotic or maladaptive personality, of tending towards
physical aggression. This is seen in a typical situation where one
spouse (moat times the wife) criticizes or nags the other about change,
while the other spouse (mostly the husband), evades the confrontation
and discussion about a problem. This inevitably leads to disengagement,
which leads to further confrontation and even more disagreement and
subsequent disengagement, and marital dissatisfaction sets in slowly
over time
Social support
This is also an important component of
satisfaction within the marriage which focuses on the degree of social
support each spouse is getting from the partner and the relationship as a
whole. Research has shown that support processes are reliably
associated with good marital functioning, as well as with beneficial
outcomes with the home setting, as a result, strong support usually
ensures a happier family and in the larger picture, sustainable marital
satisfaction as well (Karney, 1997; Shackleford, T.K & Buss, D. M.,
2000).
Violence
As unsavory as it sounds, physical violence is
also closely linked with marital satisfaction. It goes without saying;
nobody would like to become a punching bag to the other and still enjoy a
marriage. Individuals involved abusive relationships are more likely to
be dissatisfied with their relationship compared to individuals not
involved in such. This violent behaviour within marriages can be traced
to many factors such as alcohol abuse and financial pressure.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]Marital satisfaction is no longer a given in today’s world, with different factors contributing to the poor marital quality experienced in most marriages. This study attempted to find out if there is any relationship between factors affecting marriages. Participants were chosen via purposive sampling, where married people were the intended target. Marital satisfaction, family relations and psychological distress were carefully examined to see if there is any relationship between them. Als ... Continue reading---
