BEHAVIORAL COMPONENTS OF MARITAL SATISFACTION - AN INDIVIDUALIZED ASSESSMENT APPROACH

This study examined the extent to which spousal behaviors, obtained th rough a daily checklist of marital activities individualized along an importance dimension, related to global and daily marital satisfaction . Eighty-two marital couples completed daily checklists of spousal beh aviors for 7 days using either an individualized or a standardized ass essment method. The results demonstrated that the individualized measu res of daily behavioral events were significantly related to global an d daily measures of marital satisfaction and discriminated distressed from nondistressed spouses. Although the individualized method did not correlate with marital satisfaction to a significantly greater degree than the standardized method, the individualized assessment approach provides a valid, viable, and cost-effective alternative for assessing daily spousal events that relate to marital satisfaction.