Attitude toward menopause among married middle-aged adults.

One-hundred and sixty-nine-married couples participated in a study designed to examine the relationship of menopausal attitude to the frequency of menopausal symptoms at midlife. Participants completed the Bowles' (1986a) Menopause Attitude Scale and a modified version of the Menopausal Symptoms Checklist (Neugarten & Kraines, 1965). Wives expressed a more positive attitude toward menopause than their husbands, and wives reported experiencing more menopausal symptoms than their husbands perceived them as having. Post-menopausal women expressed a more positive attitude toward menopause than peri-menopausal women or women who had experienced surgical menopause. For both men and women, a positive attitude toward menopause was associated with women who reported fewer menopausal symptoms. A preliminary Structural Equation Model is presented as an effort to further stimulate the development of a theoretical model of attitude toward menopause among middle-aged married couples.