Marital Satisfaction in Later Life: The Effects of Nonmarital Roles

Questions regarding trends in marital quality over the later stages of the family life cycle have frequently been addressed, but never resolved. A theory based on role overload and strain is developed here which predicts that marital satisfaction is higher in the later stages of the life cycle because of diminishing demands of other, nonmarital roles. The departure of children is indeed associated with higher levels of marital satisfaction, but other hypotheses based on the role overload theory receive no support and are contradicted in many cases. Implications for the explanation of marital quality in later life are discussed.