Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influences of demographic, personal and psychosocial variables on the wives' marital satisfaction in order to develop theories about the stablility of modern families. The data, collected from 490 mothers living in Seoul, is analyzed by statistical methods, such as Frequency Distribution, Pearson's Correlation, One-Way ANOVA, Scheffee-test and Multiple Regression Analysis. The major findings are as follows: 1) In my study, the Marital Satisfaction Scale consists of 7 dimensions; of which affective communication, problem-solving communication, and companionship are comparatively important variables. 2) Of demographic variables, wives' educational level is an influencing variable in 6 dimensions, and family monthly income, in general satisfaction. 3) Of personal variables, sex role attitude is a significantly influencing independent variable in satisfaction with children area and self actualization, variable in problem-solving communication area. 4) Of psychosocial variables, role enactment, role consensus, and role strain are proved to be influencing variables, but role salience is not. Also, role enactment is the most influencing independent variable in almost areas of marital satisfaction. 5) By given independent variables, variance is explained 30% of all. The implication that can be inferred from the above findings is that psychosocial variables are more important than demographic variables, and that personal variables such as androgyny, self-actualization should be encouraged to further research.

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