The impact of doctoral education on the marriages of doctoral students

Graduation date: 1985The study was designed to determine the effect of doctoral\ud study upon the marriages of doctoral students.\ud The sample for the research was drawn from the total population of married doctoral students enrolled in Oregon State University/Western Oregon State College's School of Education and Oregon\ud State University's College of Home Economics. The student spouses\ud in the sample included couples who had completed their residency\ud year or the bulk of their course work.\ud These couples were interviewed in depth using the Primary Communications Inventory, the Broderick Commitment Scale, the Locke-Thomes Marital Adjustment Test, as well as a demographic questionnaire. Retrospective research techniques were used.\ud Analysis of covariance, analysis of variance and linear regression were utilized in testing the five hypotheses. Based on the\ud data collected and analyzed for this study:\ud 1. Both perceived commitment and perceived communication were\ud found to be significantly related to marital adjustment for both\ud doctoral students and their spouses.\ud 2. There was no significant difference in the strength of\ud marital adjustment over the course of doctoral study for doctoral\ud students and their spouses. The path of marital adjustment revealed a closely parallel curvilinear pattern for both groups.\ud 3. No significant difference was found in perceived marital\ud adjustment for male doctoral students as compared to that for\ud female doctoral students. This pattern reflected levels of communication and commitment for these groups.\ud 4. None of the demographic variables analyzed had any significant effect on marital adjustment