A Cross-Temporal Meta-Analysis on Marital Satisfaction of Chinese Couples

Fengzhan Li; Chen Chen; Jinrui Wang; Haiyun Peng; Lin Wu; Lei Ren; Lei Song; Yinchuan Jin; Qun Yang

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.903276

A Cross-Temporal Meta-Analysis on Marital Satisfaction of Chinese Couples

Front Psychol. 2022 Jun 29:13:903276. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.903276. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Fengzhan Li¹, Chen Chen¹, Jinrui Wang², Haiyun Peng², Lin Wu¹, Lei Ren¹, Lei Song¹, Yinchuan Jin¹, Qun Yang¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Military Medical Psychology, Air Force Medical University, Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), Xi'an, China.
² Department of Psychology, School of Education Science, Ludong University, Yantai, China.

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the changing trend of Chinese couples' marital satisfaction and its relationship with social changes.

Methods: A cross-temporal meta-analysis was performed on 118 original studies (n = 31,909) reporting marital satisfaction of Chinese couples from 1994 to 2020, primarily using correlation analysis and regression analysis.

Results: (1) Overall, the marital satisfaction of Chinese couples showed a downward trend over time. (2) Men's marital satisfaction displayed almost no change, while women's marital satisfaction had a more obvious downward trend. (3) Changes in macrosocial factors (per capita consumption expenditure, housing prices, old-age dependency ratio, and divorce rate) could significantly predict the downward trend of marital satisfaction, especially for women.

Conclusion: In the past 27 years, the overall marital satisfaction level of Chinese couples has shown a downward trend, and there are gendered differences, which may be related to changes in the socioeconomic and cultural environments.

Keywords: couples; cross-temporal meta-analysis; cultural environments; marital satisfaction; social changes.

Publication types

Systematic Review