Exploring the Role of Dyadic Coping in Marital Adjustment

Abstract

The primary aim of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Dyadic Coping Inventory (DCI) in the context of Bangladesh. The adapted dyadic coping inventory (DCI) contained 31 items. For this study, data was collected from 400 married individuals. Cronbach’s Alpha (α = 0.89) and test-retest (r= 0.83) reliability were obtained. For this inventory, Content validity was assessed by the judges. Convergent validity also revealed a significant correlation (r =.846, p < 0.01). EFA and CFA were performed to check and confirm the latent structure of DCI. The second phase of the study investigated whether Dyadic Coping significantly varies in terms of Gender, Age, Educational Background, Socioeconomic Status and marital duration. This investigation included the independent sample T-test and a one-way ANOVA with multiple comparisons posthoc Tukey HSD test. This study revealed that dyadic coping was significantly greater in females (M=112.79, SD=23.262) than in males (M= 106.79, SD=20.216). Then it was found that DC was significantly higher in the age group “18-29” and Lower in the age group “40+”. It was also found that dyadic coping significantly increased with educational qualification. Results also revealed that DC is significantly higher in the middle class than in other socioeconomic backgrounds. In terms of marital duration, it was found that DC was higher at the beginning of the marriage and dropped with time. The final objective of the research was to investigate whether Dyadic Coping can significantly predict Marital Adjustment. Therefore, the influence of dyadic coping on marital adjustment was investigated using linear regression. 83.2% of the variance in marital adjustment was attributable to dyadic coping. Therefore, it can be said that DCI is a valid instrument to use and can significantly predict marital adjustment.