Marital satisfaction, family strengths, and gender : implication for marriage enrichment

Possible relationships between marital satisfaction, family strengths, and gender were investigated using the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale (KMS) (Schumm, 1990), the Family Functioning Style Scale (FFSS) (Trivette, Dunst, Deal, Hamer, and Propst, 1990), and a global measure of marriage and family strengths. Because it was theorized that there were seven dimensions of family strengths, the FFSS, which measures five dimensions of family strengths, was revised by adding 29 questions that primarily measure the family strengths of care and centeredness/spirituality. Data were gathered through marriage enrichment seminars presented as part of the Building and Enriching Strong Tennessee (B.E.S.T.) Families project. Findings suggest that the dimensions of family strengths may be more fluid than static and that participants in marriage enrichment seminars do not differ significantly from non-participants on the KMS or revised FFSS. Findings from the current study also revealed no significant differences between husbands and wives on the KMS. Wives did report higher scores than husbands on both the revised FFSS and a global scale of marriage and family strengths.