Poster #49 - The trajectories of marital intimacy among Japanese couples: A dual trajectory approach

• In Event: Poster Session 18

Abstract

Since Bernerd (1972/ 1982) had stated there were “his” and “her” marriages, the influence of gender and gender roles have been studied regarding marital satisfaction, conflicts (e.g. Falkner et al., 2005; Kurdek, 2005), and the effects on health (e.g. Kiecolt-Glaser & Newton, 2001; Wanic & Kulik, 2011). By contrast, a meta-analysis has revealed there were little or no significant gender difference in marital satisfaction (Jackson et al., 2014). However, most work has examined White, middle class samples (Kanter & Proulx, 2020), and the meta-analysis noted above has pointed out the moderating effects of ethnicity (Jackson et al., 2014). The main aims of the study were to examine the marital trajectories among Japanese sample and to see if there were different trajectories in the marital intimacy among husbands and wives. We also examined the antecedents in order to clarify the influence of gender roles on marital trajectories.
Method: Data from an ongoing longitudinal study on mental health of parents and their children (Sugawara, 2012) was used. Heterosexual couples with 3-months old babies were recruited at public health centers in a city located in a suburb of Tokyo from October 2002 to March 2003 (Sugawara, 2012). For current study, we used those with more than two waves of data from 2004-2006 (Time 1-3), and in 2015 (Time 4) data collection. Of the original 643 couples who participated in 2003, 254 dyads data were used. We used Marital Love Scale (Sugawara & Takuma, 1997) to measure marital intimacy. The internal consistency for wives and husbands were satisfactory (alphas =.94, for wives and husbands), and higher score indicates that the subject recognizes their relationship as intimate and romantic. In addition to this, demographic variables and preceding family process in 2003 (Time 0) were included.
Results: We identified three classes of couples using growth mixture modeling (Wickrama et al., 2016). Using multinomial logistic regressions, we found that the classes were associated with wives’ age and educational level, marital length, and childrearing variables, e.g. husbands’ reports of spending time with their children at Time 0.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that the trajectories of marital intimacy among Japanese couples were heterogeneous. Some of the antecedent variables, including husbands’ initial level of involvement in childrearing was associated with an increased likelihood of membership in a less discrepant in intimacy group.

Authors

• Akiko Kawashima, University of Yamanashi
  Presenting Author

• Satoko Matsumoto, Ochanomizu University

• Masumi Sugawara, Shirayuri University