- Role Evaluation of the Spouse and its Efect on Marital Satisfaction Among the Korean Rural Couples -

농촌부부의 배우자역할평가와 결혼만족도

This study is designed to understand marital relationships of the rural couples in Korea. The primary purposes of this study are to examine the relationship between marital satisfaction and role evaluation of the spouse and to construct a path model in which shows the relationships among background variables, role evaluation of the spouse and marital satisfaction. Structured guestionnaires from 435 couples with school-age children and teenagers living in rural area are analyzed in this study. The major findings are as follows : 1. Factor analysis of the role evaluation of the spouse results I 4 factors for both husbands and wives; emotional support-sexual role child socialization-economic role, kinship role and housekeeping role. 2. The most important factor influencing the marital satisfaction is the role evaluation of the spouse o emotional support-sexual relation. While the number of children, and role evaluations of the spouse influence directly on the marital satisfaction of the wives, age, level of education, level of income and husband's occupation influence indirectly through role evaluations of the spouse on that of wives. 3. For husbands, family life cycle and their occupation influence indirectly on the marital satisfaction of the husbands and the marital satisfaction of them is also mediated by role evaluations of the wieves. Level of income of the family not only influences directly on marital satisfaction but influences on it indirectly. 4. Marital satisfaction is mediated by role evaluations of the spouse. The role evaluation of the spouse on emotional support-sexual relation has the most powerful effect on the marital satisfaction for both wives and husbands. About 60 percent of the variance in the marital satisfaction of rural couples can be explained by the role evaluation of the spouse. therefore, the result of the result of the study indicates that the role evaluation of the spouse on emotional support-sexual relation plays a significant part in determining the marital satisfaction of rural couples.