CHANGES IN GENDER-ROLE ATTITUDES AND PERCEIVED MARITAL QUALITY

We use longitudinal survey data from a national sample of married pers ons to examine how changes in gender role attitudes over an eight-year period are related to reported changes in marital quality. Structural equation models are used to estimate reciprocal relations between the se variables. Our analysis indicates that when wives adopt less tradit ional gender role attitudes, their perceived marital quality declines. On the other hand when husbands adopt less traditional attitudes, the ir perceived marital quality increases. We find no evidence that chang es in reported marital quality affect the gender role attitudes of eit her husbands or wives.