| One hundred-and-thirty-six heterosexual individuals (n = 44 men, n = 92 women), married ten years or less, completed a web-based survey to examine their self-reported marital satisfaction as predicted by perceived expressed empathy from spouse, participant's received empathy and their perception of spouse's need for power. The Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS, Spanier, 1976), Positive and Negative Behavior Items (PNBI; Davis, 1987), Barrett-Lennard relationship Inventory: Form OS-40 (ver. 2) (BLRI, Barrett-Lennard, 1995), and the Index of Personal Reactions (IPR, Bennett, 1988) were used to measure the constructs, respectively. Gender and the number of children examined as predictors of marital satisfaction. Results showed that the number of children was not a predictor of total marital satisfaction (as measured by the DAS), but was a significant predictor of the Dyadic Cohesion subscale. Perceived expressed empathy and received empathy were unique, significant predictors of total marital satisfaction. Perceived expressed empathy also contributed significant, unique variance in three of the DAS subscales: Dyadic Consensus, Dyadic Satisfaction and Dyadic Cohesion. In addition, received empathy contributed significant, unique variance in three of the four subscales of the DAS: Dyadic Consensus, Affectional Expression and Dyadic Cohesion. The need for power variable did not account for significant variance in either marital satisfaction overall or the subscales of the DAS. These results can aid couples and marital counselors in better understanding certain causes for marital unhappiness. |
