Five Types of Marriage: An Empirical Typology Based on ENRICH

Abstract

This study identified five distinct types of married couples from a sample of 6,267 couples, using the marital inventory ENRICH. Profiles were derived using a three-stage cluster analytic procedure, including an exploratory cluster analysis, a replication of the exploratory results, and a cross-validation. The five-cluster solution was robust. "Vitalized " couples (12%) reported high relationship quality on all dimensions. "Harmonious" couples (11%) had relatively high relationship quality. "Traditional " couples (16%) had scores that were slightly above average with markedly higher scores on parenting and religion scales. "Conflicted " couples (25%) were characterized by moderately low scores on all but the roles scale. The "Devitalized" group (36%) had the lowest scores on every ENRICH dimension.

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