The Effect of Similarity in Gender Role Attitudes on Husbands' and Wives’ Marital Satisfaction and Marital Conflict among Middle-Aged Couples

This study aimed to examine the effect of similarity in gender role attitudes on husbands" and wives" marital satisfaction and conflict among middle-aged couples. For the analyses, the Third National Survey of Korean Families was utilized and the sample was 1,053 couples aged 40 to 60. The dependent variables were husbands’ and wives’ perceived marital satisfaction and conflict, and the independent variable was similarity in gender role attitudes between husband and wife. Covariates were age, education level, employment status, marriage duration, and number of children. Latent Profile Analysis was applied to identify the patterns of gender role attitudes. Using the results, similarity in gender role attitudes was generated by dummy- coding the coincidence of the gender role attitude pattern between husband and wife. Then, Seemingly Unrelated Regression was applied to analyze the effect of similarity in gender role attitudes on husbands’ and wives’ marital satisfaction and conflict. The results indicated that husbands who had similar gender role attitudes to their wives reported lower levels of marital conflict. However, the effect of similarity in gender role attitudes on marital satisfaction was not significant for husbands. On the other hand, wives who had similar gender role attitudes to their husbands reported both higher levels of marital satisfaction and lower levels of marital conflict. This study may provide insights to discussions about ways to better promote and understand marital quality in later life. Moreover, its findings may be useful in the field of marriage and family therapy to develop educational programs seeking to improve marital quality in later life.