The Effect of Domestic Labor Division, Attitudes, and Their Interaction on Marital Satisfaction: A Longitudinal Study in Korea

Adam Ka-Lok Cheung, Hong Kong Institute of Education
Erin Hye-Won Kim, National University of Singapore

Marital satisfaction is a significant predictor of domestic violence, relationship dissolution and fertility outcomes. This paper investigates determinants of women’s marital satisfaction, focusing on domestic labor division, women’s attitudes toward family formation and gender-roles, and interaction effect between the two. We analyze longitudinal data from the Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women and Families with random-effect and fixed-effect models. Preliminary results show traditional family-formation attitude and liberal gender-role attitude raise marital satisfaction. Both women’s domestic labor provision and husbands’ help are positively associated with marital satisfaction. We find a negative interaction effect between liberal family-formation attitude and women’s domestic labor provision, and a positive interaction effect between liberal gender-role attitude and husbands’ help. This study provides insights on marital dynamics in Korea, as well as other Asia societies where a strong family tradition is still expected and in practice.