The study has been conducted to find out the influence of the adult attachment of middle-aged couples on their marital satisfaction. And it has been implemented to verify the effects of the attachment on each spouse's marital satisfaction. The purpose...
The study has been conducted to find out the influence of the adult attachment of middle-aged couples on their marital satisfaction. And it has been implemented to verify the effects of the attachment on each spouse's marital satisfaction. The purpose of this study is to use the result of the study as basic materials for developing consulting strategies to improve the marital satisfaction of middle - aged couples.
Hypotheses of the study are as follows. Study hypothesis 1. The attachment anxiety of middle-aged men may have meaningful self effects on their marital satisfaction. Study hypothesis 2. The attachment anxiety of middle-aged men may have meaningful partner effects on their marital satisfaction. Study hypothesis 3. The attachment anxiety of middle-aged women may have meaningful self effects on their marital satisfaction. Study hypothesis 4. The attachment anxiety of middle-aged women may have meaningful partner effects on their marital satisfaction. Study hypothesis 5. The attachment avoidance of middle-aged men may have meaningful self effects on their marital satisfaction. Study hypothesis 6. The attachment avoidance of middle-aged men may have meaningful partner effects on their marital satisfaction. Study hypothesis 7. The attachment avoidance of middle - aged women may have meaningful self influence on their marital satisfaction. Study hypothesis 8. The attachment avoidance of middle-aged women may have meaningful partner effects on their marital satisfaction.
For the study, 108 married couples in middle age living in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do province were surveyed through a self- method to find out effects of the attachment on the marital satisfaction of each spouse of the married couples. Based on this, Actor and Partner Interdependent Model(APIM) was used to carry out the structural equation analysis. The results of the study are as follows.
First, the attachment anxiety of middle-aged men has been found to have negative influence on their marital satisfaction with path coefficient of -0.551(**), but it is not statistically significant.
Second, the attachment avoidance of middle-aged men has been found to have negative influence on their marital satisfaction with its negative path coefficient, but its significance probability value is 0.05 and more, so it is not statistically significant, and it also has negative effects on the marital satisfaction of middle-aged women, but it is not statistically significant either.
Third, attachment anxiety of middle-aged women has been found to have negative influence on the marital satisfaction of middle-aged men as well as middle-aged women, and it has also been found to have statistically negative effects in terms of the actor effects and partner effects on the marital satisfaction.
Fourth, the attachment avoidance of middle-aged women has been found to have negative influence on the marital satisfaction of both middle-aged men and women, and it has been found to have statistically negative effects in terms of the actor effects and partner effects on the marital satisfaction.
In conclusion, while the attachment of middle-aged men doesn't have meaningful influence on their marital satisfaction, the attachment of middle-aged women in terms of both anxiety and avoidance has been found to have statistically meaningful negative actor effects and negative partner effects on the marital satisfaction.
According to the result of the study, the attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance of middle-aged couples have influence on their marital satisfaction of each spouse of the couples. In particular, the attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance of middled-aged women are shown to have high correlations with the marital satisfaction. It suggests that the attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance felt by middle-aged married women in the Korean society are a strong variable to have negative effects on the marital satisfaction. In addition, it can be inferred that women have more influence on the divorce or family troubles due to the marital dissatisfaction after the middle age. Therefore, to improve the marital satisfaction of middle-aged women, it is considered to be necessary to come up with ways to lower their attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance indexes and to enhance the marital satisfaction of their husbands.
The study was conducted on 108 married couples, which are a limited number, so the result of the study on a specific age group can not explain characteristics of all age groups. Furthermore, this study was conducted to middle-aged people between 40 and 60, so there are limits in the study on women as characteristics of women before and after menopause can be different. Therefore, it is considered to be necessary to conduct a comparative study later on various types of families including multi-cultural families which have been growing in Korea, and generations such as elderly couples.
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