Marital quality revisited : do classic predictors of marital quality predict positive & negative feelings of marriage?

Marital satisfaction and dissatisfaction have traditionally been conceptualized as opposite ends of the same continuum. The marriage literature has largely assessed people's moods by placing them on a bipolar continuum, rather than allowing for positive and negative evaluations to be expressed independently. To assess marital quality, Fincham and Linfield (1997) have developed a 2-dimensional construct comprising positive and negative evaluations. In the present project, 101 married individuals were recruited through the University of British Columbia Child Care Services and randomly selected from the UBC telephone directory. In the present study, classic predictors of marital satisfaction were selected and applied to Fincham and Linfield's (1997) 2-dimensional model to determine if the correlates of satisfaction and dissatisfaction differed. Overall findings indicated mixed results concerning separate positive and negative dimensions in marital quality. Factor analysis supported Fincham and Linfield (1997), yet correlational analysis showed each factor was predicted by a more or less similar set of correlates. This study helped to further explore one approach to the construct of marital quality intended to increase conceptual clarity in the field.Arts, Faculty ofSociology, Department ofGraduat