ABSTRACT
As we have argued in the previous chapter, marriage and family life are undergoing perhaps the most far-reaching processes of change they have ever known. This is in part the result of a wide and complex array of social changes, but also because of a reappraisal of the meaning of marriage and consequent changes in expectations of it. To these social, economic, and interpersonal factors, and their contribution to the creation of problems in marriage, must be added the intrapersonal factors that have always been important in influencing the marital relationship. The aim of this chapter is to explore the nature of the evidence about marital problems, since an awareness of such evidence must be an important factor in the ability of social workers to be sensitive to and aware of the existence of marital problems in the lives of their clients, and the ways such problems might be generated.
