Do demographics affect marital satisfaction?
This study examined the effects of age, education, number of children, employment status, and length of marriage on marital satisfaction. Seven hundred and eighty-seven nonrandomly selected married adults from the Flanders region in Belgium completed the Maudsley Marital Questionnaire (MMQ) (Arrindell, Boelens, & Lambert, 1983a). The results indicated a statistically significant difference between the marital satisfaction of the first married and remarried adults. A gender-level analysis showed a statistically significant difference between the marital satisfaction of men and women. Among the demographic variables, the effect of length of marriage was highly significant with marital satisfaction. In a separate analysis, we found that the effect of age and number of children had a statistically significant effect on the sexual adjustment of the respondents. Accordingly, we found that age, number of children, and length of marriage were significantly positively correlated with sexual adjustment (MMQ-S) and educational attainment with general-life adjustment (MMQ-GL) problems.
Jose
Orathinkal
O
Institute for the Family and Sexuality Sciences, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. Orathinkal@yahoo.co.uk
Alfons
Vansteenwegen
V
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001530:Belgium / Q000453:epidemiology; D004522:Educational Status; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011788:Quality of Life; D012923:Social Class; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D018454:Spouses / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires