PATTERNS OF MARRIED LIFE AMONG YOUNG COUPLES

A typology of marital structure was developed by means of a cluster analysis of data regarding husbands' and wives' day-to-day life together in work and leisure. The sample consisted of 100 couples living in rural Pennsylvania who had been married approximately 2 years. Bernard's (1964) discussion of the central features of marriage provided the rationale for the inclusion of the following five variables in the analysis: (1) gender asymmetry in labor force participation; (2) sex-typing of household work; (3) differences between husbands and wives in amount of leisure time spent with friends; (4) differences between husbands and wives in the leisure time spent with kin; and (5) amount of leisure time spouses spend together. The results indicated that marriages fall into four major types: (1) symmetrical (42 percent); (2) parallel (27 percent); (3) differentiated companionate (21 percent); and (4) role reversed (10 percent). All five variables used in the cluster analysis contributed to distinguishing the marital types. The typology was replicated using data from the same couples when they were newlyweds, as well as after they had been married only 1 year. The four marital groups identified in the original cluster analysis were differentiable in terms of their sex-role attitudes and the likelihood of their having children, but the groups did not differ in marital satisfaction.