Separation Experiences in Childhood and Adult Marital Quality

Abstract

A relational model of the influence of childhood relationships on adult marital quality is proposed and tested in a family medical centre and a psychiatric outpatient population by a questionnaire of separation experiences, the Parental Bonding Instrument and the Locke-Wallace Short Marital Adjustment Test. This paper presents results from a psychiatric outpatient population that correspond with previously reported results on the family medical centre patients. The paper also presents data from both populations on the association of childhood separation experiences with adult marital quality. The presence or absence of self-reported childhood separation experiences was not associated with variations of marital quality in either population. The variation in other aspects of separation experiences similarly was not associated with marital quality. The association between representations of childhood experience and adult marital quality, found in a previous study of the family medical centre patients, was not found in the psychiatric outpatient population. The possible reasons for these findings are discussed.