Functional conflict management in effective marital adjustment

This correlational study investigated the relationship between communication conflict management predisposition and marital adjustment of medial (not extremely happy or unhappy) married individuals. As predicted, married people's functional conflict management predisposition was significantly related to their perceptions of their own dyadic adjustment. Results from step‐wise regression procedures indicated that three out of six constructs of functional conflict management were predictive of high marital adjustment. Positive feelings was the best indicator of marital adjustment, lower value of self‐uniqueness was next, and high task energy was the third best indicator of marital adjustment. Comparisons were also made among medial, happy, and unhappy married people on three of the constructs making up the functional conflict management predisposition.