Marriage and Anomie: A Causal Argument.

A sample of 394 married couples is employed to test the possibility of an association between marital satisfaction and personal (attitudinal) anomie. Mertonian anomie theory is employed to generate an hypothesis of an inverse association between these two variables, with marital satisfaction as the independent variable. The hypothesis is supported. Conclusions are offered relevant to anomie theory, and to the utilization of marital and family phenomena as independent variables in causal explanations of nonfamily events.

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