Marital Partners' Perceptions of Marital Maintenance Strategies

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to examine marital partners' perceptions of the underlying similarities among the marital maintenance strategies initially reported by Dindia & Baxter (1987). The perceptual judgment sorts of ninety-one married persons were analyzed using individual differences multidimensional scaling, hierarchical cluster analysis and content analysis. Results indicated that husbands and wives sorted the maintenance strategies similarly. Three underlying dimensions organized the perceptual space: constructive/destructive communication styles, ambivalence-based versus satiation-based conditional use and proactivity/passivity. Six cluster neighborhoods were situated in the three-dimensional space: Last Resort Strategies, Satiation Strategies, Inward Withdrawal Strategies, Problem Avoidance Strategies, Destructive Strategies and Constructive Strategies. The findings differ substantially from the a priori classification typology employed by Dindia & Baxter (1987).