Is the relation with marital adjustment linear or curvilinear?
Susan James and John Hunsley Abstract A central postulate of the circumplex model is that moderate amounts of cohesion and adaptability are optimal for couple and family functioning; extremes are hypothesized to be detrimental. Previous family research, however, indicates that cohesion and adaptability are linearly, not curvilinearly, related to family functioning. The authors hypothesized that, among couples living in Canada (Study 1) and expatriate couples living in Nepal (Study 2), there would be linear relations between marital adjustment and both adaptability and cohesion. Participants (Study 1 N = 209; Study 2 N = 187) completed the Marital Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale III and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale. Polynomial trend analyses confirmed that adaptability and cohesion were linearly related to marital adjustment in both samples; in contrast, analyses that were based on marital satisfaction data from Study 1 were supportive of the curvilinear hypothesis.
