GENDER PERCEPTUAL DIFFERENCES IN RELATION TO MARITAL PROBLEMS

With the use of a nonrandom sample of 248, this study addresses two of the shortcomings in the research on primary areas of marital discord as well as providing an update on this research topic. The first addit ion to the literature presented in the article involves the inclusion of a sample of remarried respondents to provide a baseline for compari son regarding the magnitude of problem areas identified by divorced re spondents. The second addition involves the inclusion of a series of m arital inventory items designed to assess the way the respondent perce ives a problem area and the way the respondent perceives his/her spous e's response to the same inventory item. The analysis indicates that t he primary areas of marital discord revolve around communication issue s. Also, the analysis indicates that females perceive more problems th an males. Furthermore, females are more likely to perceive males as re sponsible for these problems. Males, on the other hand, are more likel y to perceive the problems as being mutually shared. Additionally, the divorced perceive more problem areas, and view them more seriously, t han the married. Finally, the addition of income as a control variable contributes to the understanding of the primary areas of marital disc ord.