Studies on coping with life events identify marriage as a distinct situational stressor, in which a wide range of coping strategies specific to the marital relationship are employed. This study examined the process of martial adaptation, identified as a style of coping, in 116 married volunteers. Subjects completed a demographic questionnaire, the Dyadic Adjustment Scale to measure marital satisfaction, the Profile of Mood States to measure individual emotional states, the "L" Scale of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory to examine the relationship of social desirability to questionnaire responses, and the Marital Coping Inventory to assess the process of marital adjustment. The 58-item Marital Coping Inventory was constructed, consisting of strategies that were generated empirically and also fit a theoretical model of coping. Factor analysis generated five subscales of the coping inventory, and each subscale demonstrated a distinct correlation with mood states and marital adjustment. Passive and emotional strategies corresponded to poor adjustment and high personal distress. Strategies that were positively related to adjustment were active and cognitive, and aimed at resolving the problem and alleviating the emotional aspects of the stressor. (NB)