Emotional Intelligence and Marital Adjustment among Married Couples of Joint and Nuclear Families

Marriage is the essence of life�. It is the most intense relationship as well as a legal union of two individuals (called spouses). It is one of the major pillars of the society as it offers the initial structures to establish family relations and to train future generations. Marriage provides not only companionship but emotional support and helps in the development of personal life. But often marriage fails due to various reasons like issues in behaviour and adjustment resulting in divorce. The present study is an attempt to investigate the role of Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Marital Adjustment (MA) among married couples amid diverse family setups i. e. , nuclear and joint families. The study examines the interrelationship between EI and MA of married couples among nuclear and joint families using information collected from 60 heterosexual couples (120 participants) who have completed at least five years of marriage. A self-reported scale of the variables under study. The participants belonged to Thrissur district, Kerala. Tools on Emotional Intelligence Scale developed by Singh and Narain (2004), and Marital Adjustment Questionnaire by Kumar and Rohatgi (1976) were used to conduct the study. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test analysis. The study also depicted significant gender differences in certain aspects concerning family type and EI and MA. Pearson product-moment correlation was employed to find the relationship between EI and MA. The results have shown a significant correlation between EI and MA Implications of the findings have been discussed as it carries strong implications for the family therapists, marital counsellors and researchers in the domain of family studies.