Marital adjustment and marital satisfaction levels of pre-cana and non pre-cana couples

This study tests the effectiveness of the Pre-Cana Program in enhancing marital adjustment and marital satisfaction, by comparing the level of marital adjustment and satisfaction of couples who participated in the program and those who did not. It also looks into the relationship between marital adjustment and marital satisfaction.The Marital Adjustment Questionnaire and the Marital Satisfaction Inventory were distributed to 41 Pre-Cana and 30 Non Pre-Cana couples who were selected based on the following criteria: (a) 5 years and above married, (b) with two or more children, (c) at least coming from the average income bracket, and (d) are both educated.To determine the difference on the level of marital adjustment and marital satisfaction of each group, the Mann Whitney U test was used. For the test of relationship between marital adjustment and marital satisfaction, the Spearman rank-order correlation was utilized. The alpha level was set at .025.Significant findings of the study indicated that: (1) Pre-Cana and Non Pre-Cana couples have more or less the same level of marital adjustment, although Pre-Cana wives were better adjusted than their husbands on areas with respect to social activities and recreation and training and disciplining of children, (2) Pre-Cana couples were more satisfied than Non Pre-Cana couples especially on factors concerning global distress, problem-solving communication, time together, and conflict over childrearing, and (3) couples who were well adjusted in marriage demonstrated greater level of marital satisfaction.