Regularly without the Spouse: Wives' and Husbands' Life Satisfaction in Korean Commuter Couples

• In Event: 115 - Section on Asia and Asian America Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 07. Research on Family and Deviance

Abstract

With rapid economic expansion and the growing career aspirations of women, the instance of “commuter couples” (a type of dual-earner couples in which the spouses live separately) is on the rise all over the world. The literature on this form of marital arrangement is limited, however, in that most studies are based on in-depth interviews conducted among individuals with high-level employment in developed countries. Using recent representative data in Korea, where this living arrangement is prevalent these days, this study adds to the existing literature by comparing 1) commuter and dual-earner couples, and 2) wives and husbands in commuter couples in life satisfaction. I find that commuter couples generally feel less life satisfaction than typical dual-earner couples in which the spouses live together. In addition, in commuter couples, the husbands tend to suffer from lower levels of life satisfaction than their wives. This indicates the importance of gender in the subjective implications of this newly emerging living arrangement.

Author

• Yun-Suk Lee, University of Seoul