Longitudinal dyadic interplay between marital conflict and psychological well‐being in couples: The moderating roles of wives' employment

Abstract

This study examined longitudinal dyadic and within‐partner associations among self‐esteem, subjective happiness, and marital conflict in married couples, with a possible moderating role of wives' employment status. Data were analyzed from the Panel Study on Korean Children, nationwide longitudinal data. The study sample included 1668 married couples (N = 3336 participants) where both partners provided separate data annually across three waves. Husbands' and wives' mean ages at T1 were 39.3 and 36.8 years, respectively. For both partners, self‐esteem and subjective happiness were related bidirectionally at an individual level. Wives' marital conflict was linked to husbands' subsequent marital conflict and vice versa. Wives played a greater role in their husbands’ self‐esteem than vice versa. Findings suggest that wives tend to be their husband's substantial source of perceived psychological well‐being than the reverse; however, the benefit of psychological well‐being is likely to be lower for husbands of stay‐at‐home wives.