Marital standards and relationship attributions as predictors of women's marital adjustment and non-adjustment

Marital adjustment is one of the most important indicators of women's marital quality. Several studies have investigated the role of marital standards and relationship attributions in predicting marital quality in married couples. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of the dimensions of marital standards and relationship attributions in predicting adjustment/ non-adjustment among married women. A sample of 324 married women (150 non-adjusted and 174 adjusted) was selected from all married women in Ahvaz. Participants completed the Inventory of Specific Relationship Standards (ISRS) and the Relationship Attributions Measure (RAM). . Results obtained from Enter Discriminant analysis revealed that adjustment or non-adjustment in marital relationship can be predicted by the variables of marital standards (personal boundaries, control outcome, instrumental and expressive investment) and relationship attributions (locus of control, stability, globality, intent, motivation and blame). Also, Stepwise Discriminant analysis of the data indicated that motivation attribution, expressive investment standard and locus of control attribution are the strongest predictors of adjustment/non-adjustment in marital relationships. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that marital standards and relationship attributions play a significant role in women’s marital adjustment.