Gender and Relationship Adjustment

1
Gender and Relationship Adjustment

• Brian Goldman, and Psyc 2105 Summer Class

2
Study Goals

• The study was interested in the following
  objectives
• To describe men and womens relationship
  adjustment quality
• To determine whether there are significant
  differences in relationship adjustment based on
  peoples gender.

3
Defining Relationship Adjustment

• Relationship adjustment was examined with respect
  to three separate dimensions
• Commitment (mean scores computed 1-8 scale)
• Satisfaction (mean scores computed 1-8 scale)
• Perceived Quality of Relationship Alternatives
• In addition, scores were combined into an overall
  relationship composite (totradj) to reflect
  greater overall relationship quality.

4
Describing Men and Womens Relationship Adjustment

• Table 1 Descriptive Statistics for Relationship
  Variables
• Gender Relationship Variable M SD
• Males
• Commitment 6.20 1.78
• Satisfaction 5.34 2.35
• Quality of Alternatives 4.83 2.38
• Total Adjustment 5.23 1.81
• Females
• Commitment 7.02 1.38
• Satisfaction 6.20 1.72
• Quality of Alternatives 3.19 2.14
• Total Adjustment 6.18 1.34

5
Gender Relationship Adjustment Correlations

• Table 2 Correlations Between Gender and
  Relationship Adjustment Variables 1 2 3 4 5
• 1. Gender -----
• 2. Commitment .25 -----
• 3. Satisfaction .21 .61 -----
• 4. Quality of Alts -.33 -.46 -.41
  -----
• 5. Total Adjustment .29 .80 .84
  -.79 ----

6
Determining the Association Between Gender and
Relationship Adjustment

• Moderately weak statistically significant
  relationships emerged between gender and each of
  the four relationship adjustment variables.
• Specifically, women tended to report
  significantly lower amounts of quality
  alternatives to their relationship partners (r
  -.33, p lt .01), but higher amounts of commitment
  (r .25, p lt .01), satisfaction (r .21, p lt
  .05), and total adjustment within their
  relationships (r .29, p lt .01), than men did.

7
Conclusion

• The results suggest that peoples adjustment
  within their relationships may vary depending on
  their gender.
• Specifically, the findings indicated that women
  tended to experience greater relationship
  adjustment than men do across multiple markers of
  relationship qualities.
• The study utilized a sample size that was
  sufficiently large, suggesting that the findings
  are generally representative of the association
  between gender and relationship adjustment .