The effect of gender role attitude patterns on marital satisfaction and marital conflict among older adults

Objectives: The aim of this study is to identify patterns of gender role attitude among older men and women and to investigate the effects of the identified patterns on marital quality for each gender. Method: The Third National Survey of Korean Families was utilized and 981 men and 752 women aged 60 and above, who have been married for over 20 years and have at least one child, were analyzed. Using Mplus 7.3, a latent profile analysis (LPA) identified latent profiles of gender role attitude for each gender. Then, using SPSS 23.0, multiple regression analysis analyzed the effects of the identified patterns on both marital satisfaction and marital conflict. Results: The latent profile analysis identified two patterns of traditional and partially egalitarian gender role attitudes each for the older men and women. Also, means on items relevant to the male breadwinner model and the male-oriented family culture were relatively low for both men and women regardless of the patterns. For the older men, the effects of the gender role attitude patterns on marital satisfaction and marital conflict were both significant; those individuals with the partially egalitarian gender role attitude pattern reported higher levels of marital satisfaction and lower levels of marital conflict than those individuals with the traditional gender role attitude pattern. However, the effects of the gender role attitude patterns on marital satisfaction and marital conflict were both not significant for the older women. Conclusions: The findings from this study suggest that political interventions are required to promote an egalitarian family culture for older adults. Moreover, its findings may be useful in the field of marriage and family therapy to develop educational programs that seek to improve marital quality in later life.