Title: A Study of Relationships Between Selected Factors Associated With Retirement and Measures of Dyadic Quality Abstract approved:

The relationships between life in retirement and the quality of marriage among retirees were examined-- specifically the effects of selected factors associated with retirement on measures of dyadic quality. Two self-administered questionnaires were mailed to each of 522 households of retired Oregon educators and their partners. Households were randomly selected from a list of 1,347 retired educators. Completed questionnaires from 261 couples-- 522 respondents-- provided the data base. The 4-page questionnaire contained 18 items incorporating 38 independent variables. A 10-part variant of Spanier's Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) measured the dependent variable, dyadic quality, and two of its subsets: dyadic cohesion and dyadic satisfaction. The study examined: (1) descriptive data of dyads and individuals; (2) differences in dyadic quality among groups of respondents differentiated by sex and retirement status; (3) dif-ferences in dyadic quality among respondents reporting varying levels of retirement satisfaction and life satisfaction; (4) sig-nificant correlations between paired independent and dependent variables; (5) percentages of variance in dependent variables accounted for by independent variables