SEX-DIFFERENCES IN MARITAL AND SOCIAL-ADJUSTMENT

A sample of 67 married Japanese men and 79 married Japanese women, ran ging in age from 25 through 85 years, were interviewed to clarify the relationship between marital adjustment and social adjustment. For the whole sample, the total score of the Short Marital Adjustment Test (S MAT; Locke & Wallace, 1959) and its subcategories, dyadic consensus an d satisfaction, was significantly correlated with 5 subcategory scores of the Social Adjustment Scale-II (SAS-II; Weissman, 1978): household adjustment (except the spouse), external family adjustment, work adju stment-social leisure adjustment, and general adjustment. These correl ations were present also for the women for the men, they were present only for social leisure adjustment and general adjustment, Among men, the dyadic consensus scores of the SMAT had stronger correlations with the social adjustment scores; among women, correlations with the mari tal satisfaction scores of the SMAT were stronger. Thus, marital adjus tment may be a part of social adjustment for women, but the two may be discrete for men.