ASSESSING RELATIONSHIP STANDARDS - THE INVENTORY OF SPECIFIC RELATIONSHIP STANDARDS

The current study explored the importance of relationship standards in marital functioning through the use of a new self-report inventory: t he Inventory of Specific Relationship Standards (ISRS). The findings i ndicate that community couples who hold relationship-focused standards (i.e., those who ask for a great deal from their marriages) score hig her on all of the indixes of marital functioning than spouses with les s relationship-focused standards. The results demonstrate that two pie ces of information about a spouse's standards are important: the actua l standard and whether that standard is being met in the relationship. Unexpectedly, extreme standards and differences between spouses' stan dards were somewhat less related to marital functioning. The findings confirm that spouses' standards in the areas of boundaries, control-po wer. and investment in the relationship are important dimensions to as sess.