Patterns of support-gaining strategies influence the support received and marital quality

Abstract

This paper examines the patterns among married couples of usage of support-gaining strategies for receiving support from the spouse, and their influence on the support received and marital quality. Questionnaire data from 452 Taiwanese married couples dealt with three types of support: emotional, substantial, and advice. The six types of support-gaining strategies were threat, other exploitation, roundabout appeal, reward, entreaty, and reasoning. The two aspects of marital quality measured were satisfaction and regret. The results showed that the patterns of usage of support-gaining strategies by couples could be classified as "mutual multiplicity," "husband-reasoning and wife-multiplicity," "mutual reasoning," and "mutual delicacy." The degrees of received support and marital quality varied by sex and patterns of strategy use. Husbands received more substantial support and reported better satisfaction, but received less emotional support and advice. Couples classified as "mutual delicacy" received the highest support and had the best marital quality. In contrast, couples classified as "mutual multiplicity" received the lowest support and had the worst marital quality. The findings suggest that using appropriate supportgaining strategies is important to marital life.