Self-reports of differentiation of self and marital compatibility as related to family functioning in the third and fourth stages of the family life cycle.

Using Bowen's, Olson's, and general systems frameworks, this investigator tested relationships among individual, marital, and family functioning in the stressed childrearing stages of the family life cycle. Sixty volunteer married couples completed the Level of Differentiation of Self Scale (LDSS), Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Test (MAT), and Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales (FACES) III. A significant canonical correlation was found among differentiation of self and marital compatibility as they both relate to family functioning. Subsequent canonical correlations were significant for wives but not for husbands, indicating gender differences in relationships among perceived individual, marital, and family phenomena. The concept of adaptability as proposed by Olson's Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Functioning was not supported. A revised model is proposed.