Women's beliefs as a significant predictor of negative dyadic marital adjustment in remarried couples

• Autor(a) principal: Mariana Martins de Almeida Sarmento
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://hdl.handle.net/10216/141678
• topic: Psicologia; Psychology

There is epidemiologic validity to studying families within the context of remarriage in Portugal. Given their potential complexity in the relationships they entail, these families are at greater risk of facing struggles. The research involving the belief system of these couples and families within the context of remarriage is scarce. The present study aimed to fill this gap by trying to understand the relationship between the belief system of these couples regarding remarriage and the way they perceive their remarital adjustment. In our protocol we used the Portuguese versions of The Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (RDAS) and The Remarriage Belief Inventory (RMBI) and looked for actors' and partners' effect using an Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM). We drafted a sample of 96 Portuguese couples in total within a variety of remarriage settings. Of all 192 participants, the age ranged from 25 to 70 years-old, 91.7% of females and 95.8% of males were employed and most participants had a higher educational degree. Two main categories were also established between couples: those who had conceived in the context of remarriage and those who hadn't. The dyadic data obtained using the beforementioned scales, collected between February 2019 and April 2020, provided the following results: women's beliefs constitute an actor effect (β = − 0.296, p < 0.05) as well as a partner's effect (β = − 0.270, p < 0.05). We also depicted that there is no actor nor partner effect of the male's beliefs (β = 0.085, p = 0.380; β = 0.026, p = 0.804, respectively). We concluded that female's beliefs regarding remarriage negatively affected their dyadic adjustment within remarriage, as well as their male partners. We also found that male's beliefs did not influence how they perceive their remarital adjustment neither did it influence the remarital adjustment of their female partners. These influences may reflect the social pressure and imposition directed at women to remarry fast after a dissolved marriage, not allowing them to grieve and give proper signification to the past relationship, disregarding the importance women give to financial autonomy and children (when she has them), ultimately setting them at risk to adjust to this new configuration as well as their partners.