Regularly Out of Sight, Still Out of Mind? Wives’ Marital Quality in Weekend Couples in Korea

• In Event: 20226 - Marriage, Civil Unions, and Cohabitation

Abstract

Many married couples in South Korea now adopt living arrangements in which spouses reside separately for part of the week or month—commonly known as commuter couples. Because physical proximity is typically considered essential for intimacy, marital relationship quality has emerged as a critical area of inquiry in studies of commuter marriages. Prior research offers mixed conclusions: some studies suggest that extended separation, by reducing regular spousal involvement in family responsibilities and everyday emotional support, diminishes relationship quality, whereas others contend that such arrangements allow couples to balance individual commitments with shared family interests, potentially leading to high relationship satisfaction.
This study contributes to the literature by examining changes in various dimensions of marital quality reported by wives before and after the transition to a weekend couple arrangement—a trend that has grown in South Korea over the past decade. I hypothesize that wives who were satisfied with their marital relationships while cohabiting will experience a decline in perceived relationship quality after transitioning to separate living, whereas wives who were initially dissatisfied will observe improvements. Drawing on data from the Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women & Families, I analyze a sample of married women who lived with their husbands at baseline (T0) and subsequently began living separately (T1), comparing key indicators of marital quality across these two periods.
The findings reveal complex implications of the weekend couple lifestyle for wives’ relational well-being. Although there is a reduction in shared activities and more negative evaluations of their husbands, overall marital happiness increases after the transition. Notably, the positive effects are most pronounced among wives who were previously dissatisfied with their marriages, while those who were relatively satisfied experience only a modest decline in marital happiness.

Author

• Yun-Suk Lee