Relations among spouse acceptance, remembered parental acceptance in childhood, and psychological adjustment among married adults in India

This study explored the way in which remembered childhood experiences of maternal and paternal acceptance mediated or influenced in other ways the relation between perceived intimate-partner acceptance and the psychological adjustment of married adults in India. Results of simple correlations based on data from four self-report questionnaires showed that the more accepting both men and women saw their spouses to be, the better was their psychological adjustment; similarly, the more accepting men and women remembered both their mothers and fathers to have been when the respondents were children, the better was their psychological adjustment. However, results of multiple regression analyses showed that remembered maternal acceptance no longer made a significant contribution to the psychological adjustment of either men or women when the influence of paternal and partner acceptance was partialed out. Remembered paternal acceptance was the best single predictor of psychological adjustment for both men and women, although perceived partner acceptance also made a robust contribution.