Longitudinal profiles of marital satisfaction and their consequences among Korean couples

Abstract

This study identified dyadic patterns of change in marital satisfaction after childbirth among Korean couples, including multiparous couples; and investigated the relationship between such patterns, family cohesion, and child behaviour problems using six-year data from the Panel Study on Korean Children (N = 2,096 couples). Four distinct latent classes of dyadic patterns of change in marital satisfaction emerged through a person-centred latent profile analysis: (a) satisfied couple (30.5%), (b) moderately high and declined–discrepant initial satisfaction (46.7%), (c) husband honeymoon–wife moderate and stable (10.1%), and (d) husband moderate and steep decline–wife low and stable (12.7%). Each spouse in the satisfied couple class reported higher family cohesion levels than those in the other classes when the child was six-years-old. Wives’ reports of cohesion revealed more obvious differences among the four classes than did those of husbands. Mothers in couples where husband and wife exhibited the lowest marital satisfaction over time reported greater internalizing and externalizing problems in their children than did mothers in the satisfied couple class. The findings suggest that couples’ marital satisfaction is an important factor in promoting family cohesion and preventing children’s behavioural problems.