Shukla Marital Coping Scale (SMCS): Development of a Measure to Assess Unmarried Adolescent’s Perception about Level of Adjustment after Marriage

Social scientists have long been fascinated by attitudes and beliefs surrounding family relationships and gender roles. They believe that attitude towards family formation influence a wide range of behaviours including work, education and family life (Morgan and Waite, 1997; Thorton, Alwin and Cambum, 2001; Parsons, 1999). Furthermore, attitudes and values about family formation have been changing rapidly especially during young adulthood, the point at which gender role attitudes, educational aspirations and choices among role alternatives are most likely to conflict. Gender role attitudes are those attitudes which are directly related to men’s and women’s role within marriage. Earlier post-marital residence with spouse and in-laws was mandatory as there was a trend of joint or extended family. But the 20th century has witnessed remarkable changes in family structures and dynamics: smaller household sizes, a further shift from extended to nuclear families, a decrease in mutuality, and the appearance of new forms of unions such living-apart-together, changing gender and inter-generational relations etc.