The quality and quantity of marital intimacy in the marriages of psychiatric patients

Abstract

Lack of intimacy in the marital relationship is hypothesized to be associated with the presence of symptoms of nonpsychotic emotional illness in one or both spouses. The development of the Waring Intimacy Questionnaire (WIQ) has furthered the understanding of the relationship between intimacy and illness. A clinical sample (n = 184) was compared to a nonclinical sample (n = 188) on both the quality and quantity of intimacy. The clinical sample reports significantly lower intimacy [F (1, 370) = 37.5, p < 001] and is deficient on almost all aspects of intimacy described, except sexuality. The results suggest that 1) the WIQ is a useful assessment tool which may identify marital relationships that are not close, 2) marital assessment may be useful in formulating a comprehensive treatment plan, and 3) the sexual quality of marriage may operate independently of marital intimacy.