Assets and a wife's marital satisfaction in Korea

Abstract

Assets have the potential to influence marital happiness and satisfaction. Using the two waves of the Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women & Families (KLoWF), this study examines the extent to which assets, debts (negative assets) and their changes are related to a wife's marital happiness and relation satisfaction with her husband, controlling for the socio-economic characteristics of the wife. This study found that financial assets, real assets and their changes have significant associations with a wife's marital happiness and relation satisfaction with her husband. Relatively, income was not strongly related to marital satisfaction. The findings of this study underscore the importance of assets for marital satisfaction.

Keywords::

• marital happiness
• marital relation satisfaction
• financial assets
• real assets
• asset changes

Acknowledgements

This article was supported by Samsung Research Fund, Sungkyunkwan University, 2013.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Chang-Keun Han

Chang-Keun Han is an Associate Professor, Department of Social Welfare Sungkyunkwan University. His research interests include asset effects, evalution of asset-based program, and comparative analysis of social policy.

Soo Jung Kim

Soo Jung Kim is a research associate at Center for Social Welfare, Sungkyunkwan University. Her research areas include caregiving of older adults, woman's wellbeing, and social policy.