PERFECTIONISM AND ATTACHMENT DIMENSIONS AS PREDICTORS OF MARITAL SATISFACTION IN MARRIED COUPLES

BACKGROUND-Marital satisfaction in a proverbial sense is best understood by the full range of factors that sustain it. Perfectionism and adult attachment styles have each been implicated in ascertaining relationship functioning or the lack thereof, but their combined influence, however, remains underexplored.

Participants

AND PROCEDUR - The present study sample included 220 married individuals (110 heterosexual couples), aged 25 to 55 years. The mean age was 40 years (SD = 7.6) for women and 43 years (SD = 7.6) for men. Participants were tested on standardised self-report measures of perfectionism, adult attachment, and marital satisfaction. Data were analysed using correlation and multiple regression analyses and convenience sampling was used.

Results

- The results show that socially prescribed perfectionism (SPP) was significantly and negatively correlated with marital satisfaction, whereas self-oriented and other-oriented perfectionism were not. While attachment anxiety correlated positively with satisfaction on the correlation level, this effect subsumed when SPP was entered into the Regression model.

Conclusions

- The present study hypothesises that socially prescribed perfectionism (SPP) is a key contributor to marital dysfunction, which denotes the negative impact of feeling pressured to meet others’ expectations. And although attachment anxiety may show greater emotional involvement, its influence on marital satisfaction appears to depend on broader personality-related and contextual pressures. Addressing externally induced perfectionistic expectations may therefore be important for both research and clinical efforts which are aimed at improving marital well-being.