Satisfaction among Blacks: The Significance of Marriage and Parenthood

While the relationship of marital and parental status to satisfaction has been studied extensively the population samples in most of these studies have been primarily white. For this reason little is known about this relationship among blacks. Using data from a 1979-1980 nationally representative survey of blacks this research finds that both material and parental status have an important impact on levels of satisfaction. Generally blacks who are divorced and separated have lower levels of satisfaction than those who are married. Important interactions are found also; marital status interacts with age education and rural residence to predict life satisfaction while parental status interacts with education and marital status with social participation health problems and income to predict satisfaction with family life. The implications of these findings are discussed and the need for more research is noted. (authors)