CHANGES IN GENDER-ROLE ATTITUDES AND PERCEIVED MARITAL QUALITY

We use longitudinal survey data from a national sample of married persons to examine how changes in gender role attitudes over an eight-year period are related to reported changes in marital quality. Structural equation models are used to estimate reciprocal relations between these variables. Our analysis indicates that when wives adopt less traditional gender role attitudes, their perceived marital quality declines. On the other hand when husbands adopt less traditional attitudes, their perceived marital quality increases. We find no evidence that changes in reported marital quality affect the gender role attitudes of either husbands or wives.