Marital Adjustment and Happiness

According to Kaplan & Benjamin (2001) Marriage is known as the most important incident in everyone’s life after birth. As the most important and divine social custom it has, usually been approved of to achieve an adult’s security and emotional needs. Main purpose of the study is that 1. To study and compare adjustment between couples of 5 years marital life and 15 years and above marital life  for that Marital Adjustment Questionnaire (MAQ) developed by Dr. Pramod Kumar and Dr. Kanchana Rohatgi (1976) was used 2. To study and compare psychological well being sub-scale Physical, mental, social, spiritual and emotional between couples of 5 years marital life and 15 years and above marital life for that Well Being Scale developed by Singh and Gupta (2001) and was used. For the present study random sampling technique was used for the selection of the participants. The sample consisted of 60 couples (30 couples of 5 years marital life and 30 couples of 15 years and above marital life). Sample was taken from different areas of Ahmadabad District. Result of this study is significant difference between couples of 5 years marital life and 15 years and above marital life with regards to adjustment and psychological well being sub-scales mental, social, emotional, spiritual and emotional.

the effects which happiness-as-such has on the chances of initiating and maintaining a relationship. `Indirect effects' refer to the consequences of happiness on personal development; in particular on personal characteristics that are nowadays referred to as 'relational competence' .It is also important to realize that the effects of happiness may vary along phases of the relationship. Finally, relationships do not develop in a social vacuum; the possible effects of happiness on one's chances in love depend on prevailing romantic ideals and current marriage practice.
Happiness is the ultimate form of pleasure without which all other things would be incomplete. It has been established that marital bliss is the most important factor to determining global happiness. Marital happiness, also known as marital satisfaction, could be defined by absence of conflict in a relationship and the "impression of happiness" present at both spouses. Marital happiness could be understood as the frequent exchange of positive behaviors (i.e. compliments, preparing food, and additional income) and occasional exchange of negative behaviors (i.e. critical remarks, infidelity, physical abuse). Marital unhappiness could be defined by the frequent exchange of negative behaviors and occasional exchange of positive ones.
Marital happiness is a judgment made by a spouse that indicates the sense of well being or satisfaction he or she experiences in the marital relationship. Marital happiness is a powerful indicator of marital quality. Marital happiness correlates with other indicators of marital quality, such as marital interaction, marital conflict, marital problems, and divorce proneness (Amato et al., 2007). Marital happiness has also been found to correlate with the household income, welfare use, egalitarian attitudes, traditional marital attitudes, religiosity and the interdependence of familial and friendship networks (Kearns & Leonard, 2004). Thus, we use the term ''marital happiness'' to indicate variables used in past research to measure satisfaction or happiness with various domains of the marriage.
Marital happiness drops on the scale in the first years of marriage, after children are born, then it starts to grow when the children are in their preschool and school period, but drops again when the children develop into teenagers. After this stage, marital happiness grows quickly, especially after the children "leave the nest". In this stage, also known as "the empty nest period" (when children leave their parents' home) marital happiness hits the highest level. Researchers that have studied family life have discovered that the status of employee has positive effects on marital happiness, on both sides of the marriage.
The findings of Quddus (1992) reveal the relationship between a good marital adjustment and the anxieties and worries of' living apart. The adjustment of husbands in the absence of their wives is moderately related to their marital adjustment. However the relationship between the marital adjustment and the adjustment of wives in the absence of their husbands is not statistically significant. Jaisri, M and M.l. Joseph (2014). A good marriage not only leads to a happy and contented life, but also generates a sense of well-being. The present study was an attempt to understand marital adjustment and psychological well being among dual-employed couples. The participants were 1 00 dual-employed couples selected from Trichur and Ernakulam districts in Kerala. The couples were administered Marital Adjustment Inventory and the Psychological Well-being Scale. The results revealed a significant relationship between marital adjustment and psychological wellbeing, especially in the area of life satisfaction. More wives had better marital adjustment than their husbands, whereas husbands showed better efficiency and mental health. Zuo (1992), used the typical two major dimensions of marital quality (marital happiness and marital adjustment) as separate constructs and investigated the reciprocal relationship between marital interaction and marital happiness. Marital interactions consists of the following components: frequency that spouses shared the following activities together: eating, going shopping, visiting friends, doing household projects, and going out. The components of marital happiness are: the amount of understanding received from the other spouse, the happiness with the spouse's companionship, the happiness of the amount of love and affection received from the spouse, and the strength of love for the spouse.
Ann P. Ruvolo (1998). This study examined the relationship between the marital well-being and the general happiness of an individual across time and the relationship of one partner's marital well-being to the subsequent marital well-being of the spouse. The marital well-being and general happiness of individuals from 317 newlywed couples (161 African-American couples, 155 White couples) were assessed in the first year of marriage and again in the second year. Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that the higher an individual's Time 1 marital well-being was, the greater his or her Time 2 general happiness became. For men, but not women, the higher their Time 1 general happiness was, the higher their marital well-being became at Time 2. Also, in general, the higher the individual's Time 1 marital well-being was, the higher the Time 2 marital well-being of the partner became.

Objectives:
1. To study and compare marital adjustment between couples of 5 years marital life and 15 years and above marital life. 2. To study and compare psychological well being sub-scale Physical, mental, social, spiritual and emotional between couples of 5 years marital life and 15 years and above marital life.

Hypotheses:
Ho 1 : There will be no significant difference between couples of 5 years marital life and couples of 15 years and above marital life with regard to marital adjustment.
Ho 2 : There will be no significant difference between couples of 5 years marital life and 15 years and above marital life with regards to psychological well being sub-scale Physical, mental, social, emotional, spiritual and emotional.

Sample:
For the present study random sampling technique was used for the selection of the participants. The sample consisted of 60 couples (30 couples of 5 years marital life and 30 couples of 15 years and above marital life). Sample was taken from different areas of Ahmadabad District.

Variables:
In present research marital period was considered as Independent Variable and Scores of marital adjustment and sub-scale scores of psychological well being was considered as Dependent Variable.

Tool: 1. Well Being Scale by Singh and Gupta (2001)
It can be administer to group or individual. It is widely used by researchers. It consisted of five sub-scale namely-physical well being, mental well being, social well being, emotional well being and spiritual well being. Each sub-scale has ten items and there are 50 items in total. Scores on all the sub-scale are added up to get a composite score as total well being. Minimum and maximum score can be 50 and 250 respectively. Only 10-15 minutes are required to administer the well being scale. It consist 29 positive items and 21 negative items.
Reliability: Test-retest reliability of the scale was 0.98 and split half reliability was found 0.96. Validity: Content and concurrent validity of the Well being Scale was established. Concurrent validity of the scores of well being scale was determined by comparing it with the scores of Subjective Well being Inventory Sall and Nagpal (1992). Correlation between subjective well being inventory and physical well being, subjective well being inventory and social well being, subjective well being inventory and emotional well being, subjective well being inventory and spiritual well being and subjective well being and total well being were -0.45, 0.87, -0.90, 0.28, 0.18 and 0.53 respectively.

Marital Adjustment Questionnaire (MAQ) by Dr. Pramod Kumar and Dr. Kanchana
Rohatgi (1976) The Marital Adjustment Questionnaire in its final form consists of 25 highly discriminating 'Yes -No' type items. The Questionnaire studies the following areas-Sexual, Social, Emotional. Instruction: "In the Questionnaire there are 25 statements which are related to your marital life. Read them carefully and answer them in 'Yes or No' which ever suits you the best. Some statements are personal but don't worry your answers will be kept confidential. So please answer them freely." Reliability -The split -half reliability, correlating odd even items, applying the Spearman -Brown formula for doubling the test length, was found to be 0.49 (N=60) with an index of reliability of 0.70.
The test -retest reliability was also studied. It was found to be .71 (N=60) with an index of reliability of 0.84.The retest was given with a time interval of 3 weeks. The r-values, 0.49 and 0.71 respectively, were found to be significant at 0.01 level. Validity -The face validity of the questionnaire appeared to be fairly high. The questionnaire was also validated against Singh's Marital Adjustment Inventory (Singh, 1972). The coefficient correlation between the questionnaire and Singh's Marital Adjustment Inventory for a group of 20 wives was found to be 0.71 with the index of reliability of 0.84.

Procedure:
First of all the married couples were contacted. Then they were made comfortable and a good rapport was established with them. After that they were given Marital Adjustment Questionnaire and well being scale to fill. Instructions written on the test were made clear to them. They were made convinced that their responses will be kept confidential so that they will give honest responses. When the subjects finished both the tests they were taken back. The subjects were thanked for their cooperation. After this the scoring was done with the help of manual. Raw scores were obtained and appropriate statistical tools were used to analyze the data.

Statistical Analysis:
To find out the significant difference between two groups (couples of 5 years marital life and 15 years and above marital life) t test was used. .