Factors in Chinese marital process: relationship to marital adjustment

This research examined the applicability, in Taiwan Chinese groups, of western approaches to conceptualizing and assessing aspects of martial relations. Chinese translations of American measures of marital adjustment (the Marital Adjustment Test) and marital process (the California Inventory for Family Assessment, measuring respondents' perceptions of their spouses' behavior) were developed to study a Taiwan Chinese sample of husbands and wives (N = 104 in Taiwan and N = 54 in the United States). These translations were found to be reliable and for the most part to relate as expected. In accordance with Green and Werner's (1996) reconceptualization of the cohesion-enmeshment domain, factor analytic results yielded independent dimensions consistent with the western constructs of intrusiveness and closeness-caregiving. Results also suggested aspects of marital process that may distinguish Taiwan Chinese marriages from those among western cultures. These findings were interpreted with reference to the impact of modernization on Chinese marital relations.