Evaluating Equity in the Marital Relationship: An Alternative Approach

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Abstract
Theory concerning the differing perceptions of marital partners often seems to invite the use of difference scores for measuring concepts such as equity, homogamy, inconsistency in social status, consensus regarding various attitudes, and similarity of personality traits. However, as illustrated with an example from equity theory, difference scores should be replaced by interaction terms in multiple regression analysis to evaluate such theory adequately. More careful attention needs to be paid to how family social scientists integrate theory, measurement, and statistical analysis in research.