Her Value Orientations, His Value Orientations, and Marital Dissolution Risk

Andrew Clarkwest, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.

Prior research has found associations between marital dissolution risk and measures of spouses’ value orientation, but results have conflicted regarding the relative importance of the orientations of wives and husbands. This paper outlines six distinct perspectives on the relationship between value orientations and marital dissolution. It also discusses limitations in previous empirical approaches that render them unable to differentiate between those perspectives and, in turn, to accurately describe how value orientations of wives and husbands predict dissolution risk. It examines the various perspectives using multiple modeling strategies, including a typological approach that allows for clear, intuitive empirical tests of the predictions produced by each perspective. Results show that both spouses’ value orientations matter and that the observed associations of one spouse’s values are contingent on the orientation of the other. Dissolution risk is highest among couples with a traditionally-oriented husband and a wife with a more modern orientation.