Spouse Attributes and Spousal Interactions as Dimensions of Relationship Quality in First-Married and Remarried Newlywed Men and Women

Abstract

The independence of two dimensions of relationship quality was examined by factor analyzing the correlations among five self-report scores. Two of the scores evaluated attributes of the spouse, and three evaluated interactions between the spouses. The generalizability of factor solutions was assessed by comparing findings across four groups of newlywed couples: first-married husbands, first-married wives, remarried husbands, and remarried wives (ns = 308, 290, 150, and 168, respectively). For each subject group, a maximum likelihood factor analysis indicated that only one factor, accounting for between 51% to 61% of the total variance, provided the best fit to the data. Thus there was no evidence that newlyweds' evaluations of spouse attributes and spousal interactions are independent of each other.