Relações entre significado e manejo do dinheiro, ajustamento diádico e conflito conjugal

Abstract

The present thesis studies relations among meaning and management of money, dyadic adjustment and marital conflict. It consists of four studies. STUDY 1: A narrative review on relations among meaning of money, management of money and marital quality in the early stage of family life cycle. STUDY 2: A systematic review on national and international literature about money and conjugality from 2004 to 2014. Results showed that money related conflicts are more likely to occur in the beginning of marriage and before retirement, money conflicts are strong predictors for divorce, and management of money is related to affect aspects and marital quality. STUDY 3: A quantitative designed empirical research that investigated relations among meaning of money, management of money, dyadic adjustment and marital conflict. Results evidenced relations among the studied variables. Positive meaning attributed to money was positively related to shared management of money, better dyadic adjustment, and lower scores in marital conflict. STUDY 4: A qualitative designed empirical research. It sought to understand couples’ positioning and strategies to resolve dilemmas involving financial issues related to economic differences among their families of origin, financial infidelity and debt. Results evidenced that the utilized positioning and strategies reproduce financial patterns learned from families of origin, but there is a search in marriage for a conjugal financial identity, in which dialogue is the most utilized strategy for conflict resolution.