Socio-demographic and psychological factors of marital satisfaction

Introduction: The article presents the results of empirical study of association of marital satisfaction with certain socio-demographic and psychological factors. Materials and Methods: Using the Relationship Satisfaction Scale (by S. Hendrick), the Index of tension in marital relationships (by A.I. Pishnyak) and original questionnaire we tested 487 married couples from different towns and rural areas of Altay region. Results: The results of analysis showed that marital satisfaction is most strongly correlated with marital conflicts and indicators of socioeconomic status. Also negative influence on marital satisfaction showed too young age of men at the moment of marriage (younger than 20 years old) and unwanted child. The influence of wealth on women’s marital satisfaction was discovered only in those religious women who didn’t attend church regularly but this influence was absent in true believers. Also the influence of wealth on women’s marital satisfaction decreases with age and it is not significant at the age older than 36.5 years. Structural equation modeling of predictors of marital satisfaction demonstrated significant effects of both psychological features of spouses (aggressive style of behavior in conflicts, controllability of marital life) and socio-demographic factors (socioeconomic status, number of children) showing partially indirect effect. Conclusions: Socio-demographic factors demonstrate both direct and indirect effects on marital satisfaction, but psychological factors (aggressive style of behavior and conflicts) have stronger influence on marital satisfaction.