Sex differences in marital and social adjustment

A sample of 67 married Japanese men and 79 married Japanese women, ranging in age from 25 through 85 years, were interviewed to clarify the relationship between marital adjustment and social adjustment. For the whole sample, the total score of the Short Marital Adjustment Test (SMAT; Locke & Wallace, 1959) and its subcategories, dyadic consensus and satisfaction, was significantly correlated with 5 subcategory scores of the Social Adjustment Scale-II (SAS-II; Weissman, 1978): household adjustment (except the spouse), external family adjustment, work adjustment, social leisure adjustment, and general adjustment. These correlations were present also for the women; for the men, they were present only for social leisure adjustment and general adjustment. Among men, the dyadic consensus scores of the SMAT had stronger correlations with the social adjustment scores; among women, correlations with the marital satisfaction scores of the SMAT were stronger. Thus, marital adjustment may be a part of social adjustment for women, but the two may be discrete for men.