Love attitude and marital adjustment in the family life cycle

The present study examines husband and wife perceptions of attitude toward love and marital satisfaction through seven family life cycle stages. A significant relationship was determined between husbands’ and wives’ attitude toward love and marital satisfaction for couples in the early years of marriage with no children, and for couples with children in the preschool years. Marital satisfaction and attitude toward love seem to function more independently of one another in the other family life stages. Overall, husbands vary slightly more than wives on marital satisfaction and attitude toward love, but the pattern for both is similar in that each relationship is curvilinear.