Marital Satisfaction Among Taiwanese Young Married Couples: The Effects of Resources and Traditional Norms

Abstract

This study aims to illustrate the importance of cultural norms for marital satisfaction among young married Taiwanese couples. Data are taken from the Taiwan Youth Project, a longitudinal panel since the year of 2000, with 401 married couple data completed in 2015. Based on the resource theory and contextual cultural perspectives, results confirm that both resources and cultural factors produce significant effects on young couple’s marital satisfaction. As proposed, cultural norms have greater impact on wife’s marital satisfaction. The patrilocal coresidence between generations is especially harmful for wives with full-time job, while negative in-law relations reported by husbands produce more powerful negative influence on the couples. However, gender of the child does not attain expected significance. Findings suggest that both continuity and change of family dynamics is occurring in Taiwan. Future studies need to consider both cultural norms and individual resources in analyzing marital relations in changing East Asian societies.

Keywords

marital satisfaction cultural norms intergenerational coresidence in-law relations patriarchal society

In his classic study published in 1960, World Revolution and Family Patterns, William Goode predicted that with increasing industrialization and modernization, divergent family patterns around the world would converge on the conjugal nuclear family model observed in Western societies in the 1950s. Fifty years of research has shown the predicted convergence has not occurred in developing societies (for a review, see Cherlin, 2012; Pesando et al., 2018). Instead, family structures and process in developing societies are being reshaped by a dialectical process: adjusting to economic, social, and cultural changes outside the family, while at the same time preserving traditional structures and practices within the family. This suggests that research on family relations in non-Western societies needs to take into account how this dialectical process plays out within the social and cultural context of particular societies. Taiwan is a modified patriarchal society that has experienced rapid political, economic, and social change over the past several decades (Yi & Chang, 2008). Despite the external changes, patriarchal norms often persist within families. Many of the norms embedded in Confucian ethics still shape relations with in-laws and aging parents, inheritance of family wealth, as well as the gendered division of labor within the home (Lin & Huang, 2014; Yeh, Yi, Tsao, & Wan, 2013; Yi & Lu, 1999). The objective of this article is to explore how this interplay of external changes and persistent traditional family norms affects marital satisfaction in marriages of young Taiwanese couples.

Goode’s theory of the modern family proposed that the conjugal family would be a good “fit” in a rapidly changing society, and his model suggested that marital satisfaction would be the glue that held that structure together. One reason the conjugal structures he predicted did not appear in non-Western societies may be that the persistence of traditional norms along with the adaptations to social change result in strains on conjugal relationships. In this article, we delineate how the unique properties of Taiwanese families affect marital satisfaction for both wives and husbands during the family formative stage. In doing so, we take into account factors found to affect marital satisfaction in previous research in Western families, including level of income, the stresses of child rearing, and the degree of spousal support and conflict. In addition to these resources factors, since Chinese conjugal relations are shown to act and react according to the interplay of personal resources and cultural norms (Chien & Yi, 2014), a special emphasis will be put on the relative influence of cultural norms when young couples are still in the process of forming their family culture.

The unique features of Taiwanese families include the cultural norms surrounding extended family relations. Traditionally, in a patrilineal and patrilocal culture like Taiwan, the young couple is expected to reside with or near the parents of the husband (Thornton & Lin, 1994). The patriarchal norm requires husband/son to exhibit filial piety by showing respect for the wishes, concerns, and needs of his parents. While the wife is also expected to respect her own parents, her priority changes to the needs of her husband and in-laws after marriage. As young couples construct their family culture, they are under pressure to conform to these expectations, and this normative requirement may produce negative effects on marital satisfaction. Because of the differential expectations directed at husbands and wives, conformity or nonconformity to these norms may have differential effects on husbands’ and wives’ marital satisfaction.

To measure the properties of marriages, many researchers rely on the reports of only one spouse, usually the wife. In this research, we make use of a dyadic data set that includes the perspectives of both husbands and wives, allowing for an examination of the levels of marital satisfaction reported by each member of the couple. With this feature, we are able to delineate the differential effects of variations in personal resources as well as the relative effects of cultural norms on the marital satisfaction of both husbands and wives.

Marital Satisfaction of Young Married Couples in Taiwan

Marital satisfaction, one of the most studied subjects in family research, can be defined as a global evaluation of one’s marriage (Fincham & Bradbury, 1987; Glenn, 1990; Jackson, Miller, Oka, & Henry, 2014). How one feels about his or her marriage is indicated by the subjective evaluation or individual perception of one’s marital relations (Norton, 1983; Synder & Smith, 1986).

In the literature on marital relations in Western families, the resources theory has been the dominant theory used to explain variations in marital properties. As will be made clear below, we argue that another perspective—a cultural context perspective—is necessary when studying marital satisfaction in Taiwan.

The Resource Theory and Marital Satisfaction

In the 1960s, beginning with Blood and Wolfe’s classic study of husbands and wives, resource theory became dominant. Both husbands and wives were seen as agents who brought varying resources into a relationship. Their conjugal power depends on the value of the resources each spouse has compared with the value the other had. Resources include education, money, or social status. The more resources, the more influence one has in family’s decision making.

The application of resources theory was further explicated by Rodman (1972), who proposed “resources in the cultural context” in his cross-cultural comparative studies. Among several developing societies, Rodman found that the most educated husbands, rather than having the highest scores in relative power, had relatively lower scores than less educated husbands. He argued that it was because higher educated husbands had prior exposure to egalitarian ideology, which, in turn, led to relatively more egalitarian attitudes toward wives (Rodman, 1972). Therefore, Rodman argued that while education is an important resource that enhances one’s status at home, it may also lead to egalitarian relations, if the specific cultural context is taken into account (McDonald, 1980).

If resource theory is based on the relative or comparative resources of couples, a significant extension to resource theory can be made if we use a spouse’s absolute level of resources to estimate her or his exchange values beyond the marital relations (Rank, 1982). The principal idea is that greater resources imply more alternatives for exchange outside of marriage as well as less dependence on resources with the marriage. This dual benefit, in turn, contribute to one’s marital status at home (Katz & Peres, 1985; Safilios-Rothschild, 1976; Yi & Yang, 1995).

It should be noted that various perspectives utilizing the resource framework share similar aims in discerning a couple’s relative family status or their subjective evaluation of the dyadic relations. While comparative resources may have higher explanatory value empirically, cultural normative context also plays a decisive role in shaping marital attitudes and behaviors (G. R. Lee, 1982; Mirowsky, 1985; Yi & Tsai, 1989). Most studies distinguish cultural context into patriarchal versus egalitarian norms. However, even in a totally patriarchal society, it remains to be seen whether wife’s resources in the nuclear family structure are related to her status at home (Chien & Yi, 2014; J.-H. Li & Lavely, 2009; Warner, Lee, & Lee, 1986; R.-R. Yu, 2018).

Take wife’s employment for example. The demand for labor that has accompanied economic development has created employment opportunities for women, but the familial response to the employment of wives and mothers remains ambivalent (Shafer, Kelly, Buxton, & Berkman, 2017; Thompson & Walker, 1989). Whether employment of a Taiwanese wife enhances marital quality for herself or for her husband is still unclear. When a significant effect is found, it is often shown that the effect is indirect: employment status affects other related conjugal behaviors, such as the division of housework labor (Xu & Lai, 2004) or the family’s perceived economic status (Hsiao, 2005), which, in turn, affect marital satisfaction.

Hence, we argue that studying marital relations in a non-Western society needs to recognize the important constraint of cultural context. Taiwan as a revised patriarchal society (Yi & Chang, 2008) undoubtedly provides a suitable field to examine whether patriarchy does or does not maintain its powerful operation within the contemporary societal context. In light of the rapid social changes over the past few decades, the increasing resources of young Taiwanese husbands and wives as well as the interplay of resources and norms on marital relations become an interesting question to explore.

In brief, among numerous approaches to predict levels of marital satisfaction, the resources framework clearly predominates in the Western literature. On the contrary, the cultural context approach, or normative explanation, has received much less attention. This study intends to incorporate both structural and relational resources as well as cultural norms that prescribe and constrain the marital dyads at the beginning of family formation. In other words, we use the reported marital satisfaction as a dependent variable and investigate the relative effects of resources and cultural factors in explaining the perceived marital satisfaction of young married couples.

Contextual Cultural Perspectives and Marital Satisfaction in Taiwan

In this section, we highlight in italics the aspects of Taiwanese culture and family structure that affect marital relations, and may, in turn, affect marital satisfaction. The effects of these cultural context factors on marital satisfaction will be examined in the analysis.

Taiwan has experienced declining marriage fertility rates for the past several decades. In 2010 (or the Tiger year in Chinese lunar calendar), the total fertility rate was 0.895, the lowest fertility rate in the world at that time (Ministry of Interior Statistics, R.O.C. (Taiwan), 2016). An important contributor to the declining fertility rate is the growing tendency of young people to delay marriage, especially highly educated young people (Chen & Chen, 2012). As of 2016, the median age at first marriage was 32 years for males and 30 years for females. For young couples who married earlier than age 30, premarital pregnancy was often a contributing factor (Tai, Yi, & Liu, 2015). Among those who married early, about 60% started their married life in coresidence with parents. Although lack of financial resources may be an important factor leading to coresidence with parents, economic necessity is not the only motive for choosing that living arrangement. In Taiwan, it has been conventional for married couples to begin married life living with the husband’s parents (Chi & Hsin, 1996; Freedman, Chang, & Sun, 1982; Thornton & Lin, 1994). This patrilocal normative expectation is a feature of the social context of Taiwan that may impact on marital satisfaction.

On the other hand, a young couple who lives with the wife’s family may be seen as deviating from the norm (Lin & Yi, 2013; Yi, Pan, Chang, & Chan, 2006). If exchanges of support favor the wife’s family over the husband’s, a couple may receive social sanctions from the husband’s side of kin. Simply being seen as “nontraditional” may generate stress and conflict, and may thus lead to lower marital satisfaction for one of both spouses.

Cross-culturally, it has been found that the birth of a child often leads to a decline in marital satisfaction (Keizer & Schenk, 2012). In Confucian societies, even in recent years, the gender of that child matters. Having a son to continue the family line continues to be a significant family value (Hsu, 1948; Poston, 2002; Yeh et al., 2013; Yi, 2014). With the declining fertility rate, the birth of a child of either gender may be especially important for families. Thus, for young Taiwanese couples, the birth of a child in the early years of marriage is likely to affect marital satisfaction. However, the effects may not be positive. Once child-rearing decisions become a feature of family life, conflicts between daughters-in-law and the mothers-in-law often increase. The stakes of these conflicts may be the highest when it comes to the decision making around the care of the firstborn male who enjoys cultural privilege (W.-H. Yu & Su, 2006). Thus, the presence of children, especially male children, may be associated with reduced marital satisfaction.

Rather than just a union of two individuals, marriage in Taiwan and in other Chinese societies is a union of two families (Wu & Yi, 2003). In-law relations, especially those between the mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law, have received the most attention. In a Confucian society such as Taiwan, both the husband’s and wife’s families see the newly married wife as having exited her natal family and marrying into her husband’s family (Yi & Chang, 2008). One of the wife’s family’s main concerns is that she not shame them (Hsu, 1948). When she enters her husband’s family, she is expected to be subordinate to her mother-in-law. The difference between two women in approaches to household labor or child care often generates conflicts. The husband usually plays a mediating role, sometimes providing support to his wife, sometimes to his mother (Wu & Yi, 2003). According to the Chinese cultural tradition, the conjugal dyad cannot take precedence over the son’s obligations to paternal father–son relations (Thornton & Lin, 1994). Not surprisingly, a substantial effort has been devoted to understand the formation, practice, and continuity of forbearance in the marriage for Taiwanese wives (T.-S. Li, 2012).

There are other important cultural and normative aspects that affect the marital satisfaction among newly married couples. One of the most documented factors is the gender ideologies of husbands and wives (Amato & Booth, 1995; Kaufman, 2000; Qian & Sayer, 2016). In studies of marriages in Western cultures, couples with egalitarian gender-role attitudes, as indicated by more modern (or nontraditional) gender-role attitudes, report significantly better marital relations (Amato, Johnson, Booth, & Rogers, 2003). However, when there is disparity between husbands and wives in their gender ideologies, wives with more egalitarian attitudes than their husbands tend to be less happy, most likely due to the frustration caused by living with husbands who hold patriarchal attitudes (Amato & Booth, 1995).

In Taiwan, changes in women’s roles affect marital satisfaction, but not always in the same ways as found in the West. In earlier studies, researchers found that wives having more traditional gender ideology were likely to report better marital adjustment (Yi, 1991). In contrast, husbands who endorsed a modern gender ideology were likely to report higher satisfaction in their conjugal relations (Yi, 1991). More recent findings comparing East Asian societies find that Taiwanese women, in general, have relatively lower egalitarian gender ideologies, but higher marital satisfaction compared with their East Asian counterparts (Qian & Sayer, 2016). However, among Taiwanese women who endorse more egalitarian gender views, lower marital satisfaction is reported (Qian & Sayer, 2016; Xu & Lai, 2004). The negative association between egalitarian gender ideology and marital satisfaction among married women in changing traditional societies needs to be understood in light of the changing perspective on patriarchal culture.

Along the same vein, attitudes toward traditional marriage are changing in the direction of more support for nontraditional beliefs. For example, in Hong Kong as well as in Taiwan, it was found that attitudes toward divorce after having children as well as attitudes toward nonmarital cohabitation have become less restrictive (Yi & Jao, 2013). Compared with the generally conservative attitudes in the 1990s when husbands had greater resources than wives, intact family were strongly endorsed and premarital cohabitation was strongly discouraged (Tsai & Yi, 1997; Yi, 1998). But whether such traditional patriarchal attitudes influence on marital satisfaction remains to be explored.

Intergenerational Relations and Marital Satisfaction in Taiwan

Traditionally in Chinese societies, family relations extend beyond the conjugal bond to include extended family relations (Hsu, 1948). While studies from the United States find that, for both Black and White couples, closeness to husband’s family has significant positive effect on a couple’s marital happiness (Timmer & Veroff, 2000), the effects of in-law relationships are more complex in the Taiwanese context. For Taiwanese young couples, among two sets of in-laws, the paternal in-law relationship undoubtedly has the priority, and it plays a significant part in family functioning throughout the early years of marriage (Wu & Yi, 2003). But interactions with maternal in-laws also play decisive role, especially for the new wife as she attempts to comply with normative expectations (Kung, 2012). As stated above, the experience of coresiding with husband’s family can bring about many unanticipated conflicts, especially between the daughters-in-law and mothers-in-law. Consequently, coresidence is likely to produce pressures on the young wife, which, in turn, may be harmful for the marital satisfaction of a young couple. If in-law conflict appears, although the spousal support from the husband helps wife’s coping, husbands are often found to be caught in an irresolvable dilemma (Kung, 2012; Wu & Yi, 2003).

A significant dimension of intergenerational relations affecting young couples’ marital satisfaction is balance of exchanges between the young couple and both of their families. According to cultural tradition, intergenerational exchanges between young couples and their respective parents are expected in Taiwanese families (Yi & Chang, 2008). But in practice, to fulfill the filial norm, intergenerational exchange often means intergenerational support by the children to their elderly parents (Lin & Yi, 2013). In contrast to the West where parents often provide support “downward” to their newly wed children, for young couples in Taiwan the flow of support and resources, whether financial or in the form of services, is “upward” (or from adult children to their parents; Lin & Yi, 2011; Yi & Lin, 2009). Because of patrilineal coresidence and patriarchal expectations, sons are expected to carry out more filial duties than daughters (Y. Lee, Parish, & Willis, 1994; Lin & Yi, 2011; Yi & Lin, 2009), the paternal family usually enjoys the expected advantage in intergenerational exchanges.

Nevertheless, with females having more education and more egalitarian gender expectations, the actual exchanges between generations may be changing. Lineage differentials in intergenerational exchanges between adult children and their parents is thus an important aspect to be explored (Lin & Yi, 2013). Young married working wives are likely to maintain close interaction with their natal families, including frequent visits, provision of services, and financial contributions. The intergenerational flow of support and resources, whether to or from maternal or paternal in-laws, may be another important factor affecting marital satisfaction.

In brief, for young Taiwanese couples, because marriage involves two families, marital satisfaction inevitably depends on relations with other family and kin members (Thornton & Lin, 1994; Wu & Yi, 2003). Specifically, conjugal factors such as similarity or disparity between couples (Hsieh & Jou, 2012; Yi & Chien, 2006), as well as familial factors such as coresidence and intergenerational relations (Lin & Yi, 2013) are significant structural and cultural mechanism affecting marital relations in Taiwan. Therefore, in studying marital satisfaction among young married couples in Taiwan, it is imperative to take into account patriarchal cultural expectations as well as the family interactions they create.

Therefore, the research questions guiding this study flow from our review of theory and research on marital satisfaction based on resource theory and the contextual cultural perspective. To emphasize the unique cultural context of families in Taiwan, we will focus on the following questions: (1) Is marital satisfaction in Taiwan influenced by the resources the couple brings to the relationship, including family income, employment of the husband and wife, the resources similarity/discrepancy in age and education between the husband and the wife? (1a) Is it influenced by the husband or wife’s perceived social support or conflict? (2) Is marital satisfaction in Taiwan influenced by cultural factors that are unique to the family context in Taiwan, including gender-role attitudes, attitudes toward marriage, coresidence with in-laws, quality of in-law relations, and the relative flow of intergenerational exchanges by lineage? (2a) Is it influenced by whether the couple has a son or not? (3) Is marital satisfaction in Taiwan influenced by the interplay of resources and cultural norms couples bring to the marriage?

Dyadic Data Analyses

As stated above, marital satisfaction involves both husband’s and wife’s perception on various aspects of marriage, and it should reflect the properties of interaction between married couples. But empirically, most research uses only husbands or wives reports in studying marital quality. Since the focus of analyses is conjugal relationships, although research has provided support for using a single spouse as valid representation of couple consensus (e.g., Jackson et al., 2014; Kurdek, 2005; Norton, 1983; Vaillant & Vaillant, 1993), dyadic reports from both couples are clearly a more valid data basis (Kenny, Kashy, & Cook, 2006).

Among studies utilizing conjugal data sets, husbands’ and wives’ reports are often treated as independent groups in actual analyses (Helms-Erikson, 2001). The disadvantage of aggregating husbands’ and wives’ data lies in an underestimate of the individual spouse’s evaluation of the dyadic relationship (Yi, 1991). Aggregation also overlooks the interdependency between husband and wife as a dyadic unit (Hsieh & Jou, 2012). Therefore, in order to investigate the actual dynamics in conjugal relationships, it is necessary to use dyadic data sets in the analyses. In other words, to include both answers from husband and wife and to examine the husband–wife discrepancy in multilevel analyses will allow us to capture the influence of individual relative to conjugal disparity effects (Hsieh & Jou, 2012; Thompson & Walker, 1989).

Numerous studies have documented the importance of bringing conjugal dimension into family studies (Chien & Yi, 2014; Yi & Chien, 2006). Specifically, studies from the West point out that marital satisfaction can be delineated by husband–wife discrepancy with husband’s negative evaluation producing a significant effect (Gager & Sanchez, 2003). As to the relative significance between demographic disparity versus disparity in values, mixed findings were reported. Dyadic data analyses from the Netherlands contend that partners with dissimilar family traditionalism are likely to have a less satisfactory relationship, while socioeconomic dissimilarity does not produce the expected negative effects (Keizer & Komter, 2015). But studies from various Chinese societies found that discrepancy in couple’s demographic background has more evident effect than value disparity, especially on wives’ satisfaction (Yi & Chien, 2006). In other words, whether conjugal disparity in values or in structural attributes has more significant effect on marital satisfaction remains an important subject for further examination.

Hence, to simultaneously consider both husband and wife’s marital perceptions as well as the influence of conjugal similarity or disparity on marital satisfaction will help clarify couple’s evaluation of marital relations. This study will thus analyze young married couples’ marital satisfaction by using dyadic data and will delineate the potential influence of individual attributes as well as conjugal disparity in explaining young couple’s marital relations. In order to capture the specific social context in Taiwan, in addition to resource effects, cultural or normative factors will be specified in the account of couple’s marital satisfaction at the beginning of family formation.

Method

Data and Sample

We will use two related data sets from Taiwan Youth Project (TYP) for the analysis—TYP2014 and TYP2015 spouse surveys. TYP is a longitudinal panel study launched in year 2000 with two youth cohorts at the time: 2,696 first-year junior high students (J1) and 2,890 third-year junior high students (J3). With the yearly follow up interviews, Phase I was completed in 2009, when the average age for J1 was 22 years old, and for J3 was 24 years. Phase II focuses on the transition to adulthood. We retained 67.6% of respondents from Phase I; these respondents became TYP’s initial sample for Wave I of Phase II in 2011. Based on the planned three-year intervals of sampling, Wave II of Phase II was conducted in 2014. This study uses TYP2014 data set with 2,752 respondents who were included in the initial TYP sample. The average age of the adult sample is 28.3 years, and 53% of the sample is male. Due to the overall low marriage rate in Taiwan, only 19.6% were in their first marriage (n = 539).

In addition to the main TYP samples, spousal surveys were conducted in 2012 and 2015, respectively. If the respondent indicates he or she is married, the interviewer will then ask if the research team can contact the spouse. After getting further consent from the spouse, an interviewer will visit the same household the second time and conduct a face-to-face interview with the spouse. The present study uses this 2015 spousal data set which includes 401 spouses (or 74.4% response rate) of the main subjects. After deleting those who are not in their first marriage and those whose parents are unavailable for asking in-law relations, the final sample includes 388 couples with an average age of the husband as 30.8 years and of the wife as 29 years.

Since this study intends to focus on the dyadic properties, our analyses are based on 388 couples. All the information used in the subsequent analyses are from these young adults’ survey reports in 2014 (main subjects) and 2015 (spouses), except the constructed variable on intergenerational exchanges which will be explained below.

Variables

Marital Satisfaction

An important question was asked for both Wave II subjects and their spouses: “Are you satisfied with the relationship with your spouse?” The response categories range from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 4 (very satisfied). This item was then cross-classified by gender to create the husband’s and wife’s own self-report satisfaction of their marriage.

Resources Variables

Household monthly income was derived from TYP2014 which listed 18 categories from 1 (less than 10,000 NT) to 18 (more than 200,000NT). Higher score indicates higher income with an implication of higher socioeconomic status.

Fulltime job was derived from TYP 2014 to TYP 2015 spousal surveys. In each survey, the individual was asked about their job status (e.g., full-time job, part-time job, or no job). We collapsed this variable into two groups with 1 (fulltime job) and 0 (others) for both husbands and wives.

Educational discrepancy

Two steps were employed to capture the educational differences between young couples. First, husbands’ educational level was subtracted from wife’s educational level. Second, we grouped the differences into three groups: husbands’ educational level is higher, wife’s educational level is higher, and the educational level is equal between the couple. To see how traditional patriarchal value may influence couple’s marital satisfaction, we create two dummy variables using the traditional mating gradient (i.e., husband’s educational level higher) as the reference.

Age discrepancy

Similarly, to the computation of educational discrepancy, two steps were employed to measure age discrepancy. To examine whether traditional patriarchal value influences couple’s marital satisfaction, we create two dummy variables, one for “equal ages” and one for “husband lower,” using “husband’s age older” as the reference category.

Spousal support is calculated from the average score of three items asking married respondents if their spouses show supportive attitudes when they are together in discussion, listening, and expression. Both TYP2014 and TYP2015 spouse surveys include this scale. The average score is used to denote the reported spousal support. Higher score indicates lower level of emotional support from the spouse (α = .97 for husband; α = .96 for wife).

Conjugal conflict is captured by five items. Specifically, we asked both the main samples and their spouses whether any of a set of negative situations has ever occurred between them (i.e., cold war, quarrel, fight or throw things, cursing each other, frightened by spouse). Summation of all items is considered to represent the seriousness of negative interaction among the couple. Higher score indicates more conjugal conflict between husband and wife.

Cultural Variables

Gender of first child was derived from TYP 2015 Spousal survey. Respondents were asked about number of children at the time of interview. About 75% of them have at least one child, with 35.8% having sons and 38.9% having daughters as their first child.

Nontraditional marital attitude is constructed by four items from the TYP 2014 and 2015 spousal survey. Each item captures individuals’ attitude toward marriage (e.g., “cohabitation is acceptable for a couple even if they are not married”; “Divorce is ok if couples can’t solve their problems”). The response categories range from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree). Higher score indicates more modern or nontraditional marital attitude (α = .73 for husband; α = .68 for wife).

Nontraditional gender-role attitudes are created by six conventional items emphasizing the patriarchal gender-role attitude (e.g., “Married women should be laid off first during economic recession”; “Men are more suitable to be mangers at the work place”; “Husband’s responsibility is to make money and wife’s responsibility is to take care of family”; “A preschool child suffers if mother has a fulltime job”). The response categories range from 1 (strongly agree) to 4 (strongly disagree). Summation of six items is used with higher score indicating more modern gender-role attitude (α = .71 for husband; α = .66 for wife).

Coresidence with parents is identified by a question asking spouse samples who they coresided with when they were married. A normative practice for young couples in Taiwan after marriage is to coreside with paternal parents for at least a short duration (Thornton & Lin, 1994). Hence, this variable helps ascertain the patriarchal norm imposed on the young married generation. There are three categories to be distinguished: separate residence between young couples and parents; coresidence with paternal parents; and coresidence with maternal parents. To discern possible patriarchal influence, coresidence with paternal parents will be used as the reference in the subsequent analyses with the other two categories as two dummy variables.

Relationship with in-laws is derived from self-reported ratings on the relationship with in-laws. Married respondent as well as their spouse were asked how satisfied they are with their parents-in-laws. The response categories ranged from 1(very satisfied) to 4 (very unsatisfied). The higher the score, the more negative relationship with in-laws is reported.

Intergenerational exchange is often measured by exchanges between generations in financial, physical, and emotional help. We use money provided and received from young couples and their respective parents to construct this variable. Previous reports document that the couple generation (G2) tends to provide more financial help to parents (G1; Lin, 2012; Yi & Lin, 2009). Our finding shows that mutual exchange of money between generations is the most common in that 70% of young couples gives money to own parents, and 53% of them also receives money from own parents. This is likely because of the relative economic constraint of young couples at the early stage of family formation. Hence, we decide to explore the exchange between generations from the lineage perspective and construct financial exchanges between generations which enable us to distinguish patterns that favor the paternal versus maternal side of the family.

We first look into husband’s and wife’s score of money provision to their own parents (G2 → G1)—the response categories range from 1(very often) to 5 (never)—and subtract wife’s score from husband’s score, which is then distinguished into three categories: 0 (equal), 1(give more to wife’s parents) and 2 (give more to husband’s parents). Second, we went through the identical process to create money provision from parents to young couples (G1 → G2). This also results in three categories: 0 (equal), 1(wife’s parents give more to young couples) and 2 (husband’s parents give more to young couples). Third, we cross-tabulate these two categorical variables (see the appendix). Based on the cross-table findings, we construct our intergenerational exchange variable which has three categories: 0 (equal exchange), 1 (favor wife’s side), and 2 (favor husband’s side). This constructed variable will allow us to examine the potential patriarchal influence in intergenerational exchanges by capture a “two-way” instead of “one-way” financial exchanges between young couples and their parents.

The Analytic Strategy

In order to illustrate the important effects of cultural norms on marital satisfaction in addition to personal resources, TYP 2014 main sample survey and TYP2015 spousal survey are used. From this valuable conjugal data set, we are able to compare effects of dyadic properties in explaining marital satisfaction at the early family formation stage. Furthermore, in addition to individual resources, cultural factors pertaining to normative expectations are incorporated in order to ascertain their relative influence.

Since our purpose is to see how different resource and cultural factors influence husband and wife’s marital satisfaction, path analysis approach which allowed the model to estimate the effects of each individual factor on each individual’s satisfaction simultaneously is employed. By using this analysis, one can easily distinguish how husband’s factor influences his own and his wife’s marital satisfaction and vice versa. Regarding the missing data, linear interpolation was used to replace the missing value for variables having fewer than 4% of missing.

Results

We will first present the descriptive statistics of all variables used in our model, then discuss the findings from multivariate analyses. From Table 1, the average satisfaction of marriage among Taiwanese young couples is rather high (3.35 for husband; 3.24 for wife). The expected lower score of wives was further tested and the difference between husbands and wives was significant (t = 3.03, p < .01). For the resources variables, let us first look at the categorical variable. With regard to “full-time job,” 90% of husbands and 64.4% of wives are working full-time. In terms of their monthly household “income,” a mean of NT$70,000 to NT$79,999 shows young married couples, while lower than their unmarried counterpart, have similar economic resources as the national average for the group aged 30 years and younger. Since the mean “age” of first marriage in Taiwan was 32 years old for males and 30 years for females, the mean age of our couples—husbands (30.4) and wives (29; t = 7.56, p <.01) and the mean marriage years of 2.9—suggests they are married relatively early as compared with their peers. If we look into the “educational differential,” the traditional marriage gradient is loosening. Because wives have, in average, higher educational attainment than their husbands (t = −3.62, p < .01). The educational expansion in Taiwan certainly benefits the educational enhancement of females. But it should be pointed out that young married couples having a mean educational level between vocational high and junior college is still lower than their unmarried counterpart who has a mean education level of junior college. For the “spousal support,” husbands express higher perceived support from their spouses (3.90) than wives (3.79). In contrast, wives tend to report significantly more “conjugal conflict” (0.55) occurred between them and their spouses than husbands (0.43).

Table 1.

Descriptive Statistics of All Variables.

Outcome	M (SD)
Satisfaction with the marriage^a
Husband	3.35 (0.56)
Wife	3.24 (0.60)
Resources
Family income	9.65 (0.36)
Age^a
Husband	30.38 (2.90)
Wife	29.00 (2.15)
Education^a
Husband	3.38 (1.14)
Wife	3.57 (0.91)
Spousal support
Husband	3.90 (2.21)
Wife	3.79 (2.15)
Conjugal conflict^a
Husband	0.43 (0.75)
Wife	0.55 (0.86)
Full-time job^a, % (frequency)
Husband	89.7 (348)
Wife	64.4 (250)
Culture	M (SD)
Nontraditional marital attitude^a
Husband	2.44 (0.53)
Wife	2.55 (0.42)
Modern gender-role attitudes^a
Husband	2.77 (0.42)
Wife	3.05 (0.39)
Negative in-law relationship^a
Husband	1.72 (0.50)
Wife	2.03 (0.62)
First child, % (frequency)
Boy	35.8 (139)
Girl	38.9 (151)
No child	25.3 (25.3)
Coreside with parents at marriage
Separate residence	37.1 (144)
Coreside with paternal parents	54.9 (213)
Coreside with maternal parents	8.0 (31)
Intergenerational exchange (finance)
Equal exchange	43 (167)
Favor wife side	23.5 (91)
Favor husband side	33.5 (130)

Note. n = 388.

The difference between husband and wife is significant.

With regard to cultural variables, as can be seen, wives enjoy relatively higher nontraditional “marital attitudes” (2.55 vs. 2.44 of husbands) as well as higher modern “gender-role attitudes” (3.05 vs. 2.77 of husbands). But for the “in-law relationship,” wives are significantly more likely to report negative evaluation (2.03) than husbands (1.72). These findings are consistent with previous documents in Taiwan (Lu & Jou, 2015; Yi & Jao, 2011). With regard to categorical variables, 74.7% of these young couples already “have” at least one “child”: girls (38.9%); boys (35.8%); and no children (25.3%). For the patrilocal influence, we first examined the “coresidence” between generations and found that 62.9% of young couples coreside with parents when they were newly married. Among the coresidence couples, it is not surprising that the majority of them coresides with paternal parents (54.9%), next was separate residence (37.1%), and last, coresidence with maternal parents (8%). As to the constructed variable on “intergenerational exchange” of financial help, Table 1 shows that fair exchange between generations is the most common (43%), followed by exchange that favors husband’s family (33.5%) while exchange that favor wife’s family being lower (23.5%). Judging from the patriarchal principle, Taiwanese young couples reveal both continuity of cultural norms (e.g., coresidence with paternal parents) and change or loosened normative influence (e.g., a substantial exchanges occurred with maternal family). It is therefore important to delineate the relative effects between resources and cultural norms on the marital satisfaction of young married couples in Taiwan.

Table 2 shows the results of multivariate analyses with marital satisfaction reported by husbands and wives as the outcome variable. Whenever required, the category representing the traditional patriarchal pattern will be used as the reference group (e.g., husband being older than wife, husband having higher education, coresidence with paternal parents, exchange that favors husband’s family). Let us first look at the effects of resources variables. Higher “family income” slightly contributes to wife’s marital satisfaction. Regarding the occupational effect, if wife holds a “full-time job,” it negatively influences only husband’s marital satisfaction (β = −.13), not her own. This result implies that for young husband, the higher resources of wife may be associated with psychological pressure or pressure on him to do physical chores, despite his wife’s contributions to the family economy. Since having a full-time job does not enhance wife’s marital satisfaction, perhaps coresidence with paternal parents, with their possible help for housework, may benefit working wife’s marital satisfaction. To ascertain the potential impact from coresidence with paternal parents, we test the interaction between these two variables. Analysis shows working wives who coreside with paternal parents have significantly lower marital satisfaction (β = −.23; see Table 3). While Taiwanese women may enjoy freedom to develop their careers, the cultural expectation of patriarchal priority remains strong. Hence, coresidence with paternal parents may fulfill the normative expectation, but on the other hand, this living arranging for a wife with a full-time job is likely to create tensions at home which in return, decrease her marital satisfaction.

Table 2.

The Results of Predictors on Husband and Wife’s Marital Satisfaction (MS).

Variables	Husband’s MS	Wife’s MS
Resources
Family income		.01 (.01)^†
Has full-time job
Husband
Wife	−.11 (.06)^†
Age^a
Husband and wife the same
Wife is older
Education^b
Husband and wife the same
Wife is higher		−.15 (.08)^†
Spousal support
Husband’s support
Wife’s support
Conjugal conflict
Husband’s report	−.14 (.04)**
Wife’s report		−.18 (.03)**
Cultural
Gender of first child^c
Boy		−.15 (.07)*
Girl		−.14 (.07)^†
Nontraditional marital attitude
Husband
Wife		−.16 (.06)**
Modern gender-role attitude
Husband
Wife		.13 (.07)^†
Coresidence^d
Separate residence	.10 (.06)^†
Coreside with maternal parents		−.24 (.10)*
Negative in-law relations
Husband	−.31(.05)**	−.12 (.06)*
Wife		−.18 (.05)**
Intergenerational exchange^e
Equal exchange
Favor wife side		.14 (.08)^†
R ²	.20	.23

Note. n = 388. Outcome: Are you satisfied with the relationship with your spouse? (Higher score indicates more satisfied with the marital relationship.)

Husband is older as the reference group. ^bHusband has higher education as the reference group. ^cNo child as the reference group. ^dCoresidence with paternal parents as the reference group. ^eFavor husband’s side as the reference group.

†

p < .1. *p < .05. **p < .01.

Table 3.

Selected Results of Moderating Effect.^a

Variables	Husband’s MS	Wife’s MS
Resources × Cultural
Coreside with paternal parents × Boy	−.02 (.13)	−.11 (.14)
Coreside with paternal parents × Girl	−.08 (.13)	−.05 (.14)
Coreside with paternal parents × Wife’s full-time job	.09 (.11)	−.23 (.12)*b
Coreside with paternal parents × Negative in-law relations (husband’s report)	.12 (.08)	.03 (.08)
Coreside with maternal parents × Negative in-law relations (husband’s report)	−.27 (.20)	−.17 (.20)
Coreside with paternal parents × Negative in-law relations (wife’s report)	−.07 (.07)	−.17 (.07)*c
Coreside with maternal parents × Negative in-law relations (wife’s report)	−.08 (.1)	−.09 (.15)
Cultural × Cultural
Coreside with paternal parents × Wife’s modern gender-role attitude	−.08 (.14)	−.06 (.15)

Note. n = 388. MS = marital satisfaction. Outcome: Are you satisfied with the relationship with your spouse? (Higher score indicates more satisfied with the marital relationship.)

For simplicity, only interaction results were presented. For the results of other variables can be obtained from the first author on request.

Wives who have a full-time job have lower self-report MS when the young couples coreside with paternal parents than other living arrangement.

Wives have negative in-law relations reveals significant negative effects on her marital satisfaction when the young couples coreside with paternal parents than other living arrangement.

p < .05.

For the “educational discrepancy,” if wife has higher education as compared with husband being higher educated, this untraditional mating gradient is likely to result in wife’s lower marital satisfaction (β = −.15). For “conjugal conflict,” both husbands and wives who report a negative communication pattern tend to have lower marital satisfaction. In both cases, the negative effect is restricted to his (β = −.14) or her (β = −.17) own evaluation of marital satisfaction. In other words, findings from resources variables indicate that both tangible and nontangle resources produce the expected significant effects.

In terms of cultural variables, as expected, “having a child” early in the marriage tends to produce harmful effects on the young wife’s satisfaction, regardless of gender of the first born (β = −.15 for boys; β = −.14 for girls). Interestingly, this result suggests that only young wives are likely to suffer from parenthood. In addition, the gender of the child does not matter: having a son or a daughter results in similar negative outcome on wife’s marital satisfaction. In terms of ideological effects, a wife having nontraditional “marital attitudes” is associated with her having lower marital satisfaction (β = −.16). Since nontraditional marital attitudes pertain to the endorsement of premarital cohabitation and of divorce, they reflect one’s liberal attitudes toward marriage. As can be seen, marital attitudes that deviate from the conservative or normative prescription produce negative impact on wife’s marital satisfaction, but not on husband’s.

In contrast, wives with modern “gender-role attitude” have higher marital satisfaction (β = .13), although only marginally significant. Since modern gender attitude is not favored in the patriarchal cultural context, we suspect that the marital satisfaction for wives having modern gender attitudes may decrease if they coreside with husband’s parents. To check this possibility, the interaction effect of wife’s gender attitude and coresidence with husband’s parents was performed. However, it does not reach significance at the conventional level (Table 3). One may further suspect that the insignificant results may be due to the model complexity and collinearity problem. To rectify this problem, we used analysis of variance to test how wife’s gender-role attitude and living arrangement influence both husband and wife’s marital satisfaction by dichotomizing wife’s score at median and creating four groups (e.g., modern gender-role attitude × coresidence with husband’s parents). The results show no significant difference, F(3) = 0.73, ns for wife’s satisfaction; F(3) = 1.22, ns for husband’s satisfaction. Hence, we tentatively contend that modern gender-role attitude may be beneficial to wife’s marital satisfaction irrespective of her current living arrangement.

Another interesting finding pertains to the “coresidence” between generations. Table 2 points out that separate residence with parents at marriage is related to higher satisfaction for husband (β = .10), although only marginally significant. If young couples prefer autonomy more than support from parents, this preference may be particularly so for husbands. However, living with wife’s parents is associated with the wife’s lower marital satisfaction (β = −.24). This is surprising given that coresidence with one’s own parents should be the less stressful than living with in-laws. Since coresidence with maternal parents at marriage is uncommon, we suspect that violating the patriarchal norm is not conducive to wife’s marital satisfaction. Hence, wives who live with the wife’s parents tend to experience lower marital satisfaction than wives who coreside with paternal parents. This result, when combined with the negative effect of having children, leads us to speculate the possibility of an interaction effect between child’s gender and the coresidence. In other words, having children’s negative effects may be mitigated if the young couple’s parents help with the child care, and if they help more in caring for grandson then granddaughter. However, the analyses do not find any significance (Table 3). Hence, compared with childless couples, moving into motherhood significantly lowers wife’s marital satisfaction regardless of children’s gender and her coresidence pattern.

As discussed above, “in-law relation” always presents a potential threat to Taiwanese young couple’s marriage. Table 2 confirms the significant effects produced by the negative in-law relations reported. As expected, wife having negative relation with husband’s parents tend to report lower marital satisfaction (β = −.18). But it is the negative in-law relation reported by husband which has more salient effect. As shown, husband’s negative relation with wife’s parents is likely to harm both his own and his wife’s marital satisfaction (β = −.31 and β = −.12). The difference is significant (χ² = 8.13, degrees of freedom [df] = 1) which indicates that husband having bad relations with wife’s parents actually has greater negative impact on his own marital satisfaction than on his wife’s. However, it should be noted that while negative in-law relations reported by either husband or wife has negative effect on wife’s marital satisfaction, the difference between them (i.e., husband’s and wife’s negative in-law relations on wife’s marital satisfaction) is not significant (χ² = .46, df = 1). This implies that for a young couple, the in-law relation has expected significant influence on their marital relations. Specifically, for husbands, his relations with wife’s parent matters more to his marital satisfaction; while for wives, both hers and her husband’s negative in-law relations produce pronounced harmful effects on her marital satisfaction.

It should be noted that negative in-law relations are seriously conditioned by the living arrangement. Because coresiding parents may interfere should conjugal conflict occurs. Under the patriarchal context, a young daughter-in-law is not supposed to argue back or show unfilial behavior, which may worsen her marital satisfaction. To investigate this possibility, we test the interaction terms between negative interaction (mean centering) and coresidence with parents. The results confirm our contention in that wife having negative in-law relations reveals significant negative effects on her marital satisfaction when the young couples coreside with paternal parents than other living arrangement (β = −.17; see Table 3).

Regarding the “intergenerational exchange” between couples and parents, the analyses show that whether exchange favors maternal side or is equal between generations does not have significant influence on husband’s marital satisfaction (Table 2). But if the financial exchange favors wife’s side of family, it will produce a marginally positive effect on wife’s marital satisfaction (β =.14) as compared with exchange that favors husband’s family. In other words, for these young couples, intergenerational exchange that favors the wife side of family (i.e., while exchange occurs between generations but couples give more to maternal parents, and maternal parents give less than paternal parents) is beneficial to her marital satisfaction. It appears for young Taiwanese wives, when the exchange outcome favors the maternal family, it helps enhance wives’ marital satisfaction.

In brief, our analyses are able to show that cultural variables produce expected significant effects on the marital satisfaction of Taiwanese young couples. Patriarchal norms as reflected in the coresidence patterns, intergenerational exchanges and in-law relationships largely contribute to the marital satisfaction of young couples in the expected direction.

Conclusion

This study examines marital satisfaction among young married couples in Taiwan. While marital relations remain a classical research subject, most studies face two serious challenges. The first is a reliance on cross-sectional surveys of reports by one party (either husband or wife) rather than the more desirable dyadic reports (Kenny et al., 2006). The second is an overemphasis on (and the restriction to) the resources framework. Although the distribution of resources may determine the current marital dynamics in the West, when in the non-Western context, traditional norms may be important to take into consideration. Our study aims to address the above problems and offer a cross-cultural perspective in studying marital satisfaction in a non-Western society such as Taiwan. In this study, we explore the relative effects of resources, exchanges of resources, and normative practice on marital satisfaction. Going beyond previous studies of marital satisfaction, we also explore the effects of unique, normative factors present in Taiwanese families.

Overall, our findings confirm that both resources and cultural factors have the expected significant influence on the marital satisfaction of young married couples in Taiwan. A brief recap points out that resources factors show that for husband, wife having full-time job and the experience of conjugal conflict tend to reduce his marital satisfaction. For wife, higher family income produces positive effect on her report, but having higher education than husbands and the experience of conjugal conflicts lower her marital satisfaction. Thus, to answer our first question, resources as indicated by both structural as well as relational variables reveal expected influence. In particular, young couple’s own perceived conjugal conflict affects his or her own marital satisfaction.

For cultural factors, several interesting findings unique to the Taiwanese family context are found. For husband, separate residence, or, in other words, not coresiding with parents, contributes to his positive report; but perceived negative in-law relations with his wife’s parents significantly harm his marital satisfaction. As to wife, all cultural or normative variables included in the model attain significance. Specifically, having a child, irrespective of gender of the child, significantly decreases wife’s marital satisfaction. Wives with nontraditional marital attitudes, coresidence with maternal parents, having negative in-law relations as reported by their spouses or themselves tend to be less satisfied with their marriage. But holding modern gender-role attitudes and an intergenerational exchange that favors the maternal side of family contribute to wife’s marital satisfaction.

The “interaction of resources and cultural factors” points out that the normative practice of coresidence with paternal parents plays a key role in explaining young couple’s marital satisfaction in Taiwan. Among 64% of wives who work full-time, if we add paternal coresidence into consideration, the interaction effect significantly harms wife’s marital satisfaction. Similarly, negative in-law relations produce negative influence on couple’s marital satisfaction, but only wives who coreside with paternal parents and have negative in-law relations experience significant declines in marital satisfaction. In other words, analyses support our contention that the interplay of resources and cultural norms need to be incorporated in understanding the marital life of young couples in Taiwan.

It should be noted that among all significant effects derived, the expected cultural influence is particularly evident on intergenerational relations. With regard to the unique aspects in the marital life among newlywed Taiwanese couples, intergenerational exchanges which take into account both lineage and generation differentials confirm that the upward provision pattern (G2 → G1) with a patriarchal preference remains the most common type. Although mutual exchanges are more prevalent and perhaps necessary at this life stage, our analyses reveal that exchanges which favor the wife’s family benefits wife’s marital satisfaction. In other words, if young couples give more money to maternal parents or if husband’s parents give more money to young couples, the disproportionate exchanges tend to enhance the marital satisfaction perceived by wives. The typical patrilocal coresidence between generations which constitutes the majority (55%), however, does not benefit husband’s marital satisfaction. Instead, separate residence (37%) contributes to husband’s marital relations. Since the suspected interaction effect between gender of children and coresidence was not found, it is suspected that the freedom from not living with own parents, with or without children, increases husband’s marital satisfaction. This is particularly interesting when compared with wife who is likely to suffer more from living with own parents than coresiding with husband’s parents. As expected, patriarchal norm appears to constrain wife’s perception of marital satisfaction, but less so on the husband’s.

It then becomes clear why husband’s negative in-law relations, instead of the wife’s negative in-law relations, produce more harmful effects. Our analyses indicate that wife’s marital satisfaction declines if she has problem with her husband’s parents. But if husband does not get along with wife’s parents, his negative in-law relation affects both his and his wife’s marital satisfaction, and the effect is significantly higher for his own marital satisfaction. In other words, the expected negative influence of females’ dyadic tension at home is restricted to wife’s marital satisfaction only. For the young husband, a negative in-law relation not only has a serious impact on his marriage but it also has a negative effect for his wife. The above findings on separate residence as well as on in-law relations suggest that Taiwanese young husbands tend to be more significantly bothered by complicated kin relations than wives. Hence, husbands are happier if they can minimize potential conflicts with in-laws. For husbands, separate residence appears to buffer the strains between generations. Wives, on the contrary, remain bound by traditional normative expectation and by husband’s attitudes.

There are other important patterns that may be explained from the cultural perspective as well. For wives, having greater resources (e.g., full-time job, higher education) and modern attitudes have negative effects on marital satisfaction. These findings are contrary from what resource theory would lead us to expect. Coresidence with her own parents also brings negative influence on wife’s satisfaction. Judging from the patriarchal perspective, patterns that do not coincide with traditional patriarchal norms are likely to have harmful effects on the marital satisfaction on young couples in general, and clearly more so for wives, in Taiwan. In fact, the message derived from our analyses suggests that both continuity and change of family dynamics is occurring. A closer scrutiny on wife’s report provides some evidence. Having a child has clear negative effect on wife’s marital satisfaction, but not on husband’s. However, gender of the child does not produce expected significant influence, at least not at the family formation stage. Also, financial exchange favoring wife’s side of family is emerging (23.5%) which results in positive influence on wife’s marital satisfaction. The complexity of contextual cultural perspective certainly deserves serious attention.

There are undoubtedly other important aspects to be included in the research framework. For example, the sensitivity analysis finds that there is a moderate relationship between parents’ marital relationship and respondents’ own marital relationship. This suggests that the intergenerational transmission of various family experiences needs to be examined in the future. Since our goal is to ascertain the potential influence of cultural norms, we focused on family values and behaviors in line with patriarchal cultures.

In brief, studying marital satisfaction among young married couples in Taiwan allows us to understand the challenge that young adults face in a changing society. Our findings confirm the importance of cultural norms and suggest that in addition to structural and relational factors, normative expectation continues to have pronounced effects on marital relations for the young generation in a modified patriarchal society such as Taiwan.

Footnotes

Appendix

G1 → G2	G2 → G1
G1 → G2	Equal	Give more to wife’s parents	Give more to husband’s parents	Total
Equal				209
Wife’s parents give more				85
Husband’s parents give more				94
Total	172	83	133	388

Note. G1 = parents; G2 = young couples.

These cells were coded as “equal exchange” (□). ^bThese cells were coded as “favor wife side” (○). ^cThese cells were coded as “favor husband side” (◇).

Acknowledgements

We thank Samantha Chao for her help in checking references and in editing the final version of this article.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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