Contact with Parents and Parents-in-Law, Gender, and Marital Satisfaction in Korea

• Published in: Journal of marriage and family 2019-10, Vol.81 (5), p.1192-1205
• Main Authors: Choi, Heejeong, Nam, Boram, Kim, Seongeun, Park, Chulwoong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adults; Aging (Individuals); Chi-square test; Coresidence; Cultural Context; Daughters; Egalitarianism; Family relations; Family Relationship; Family structure; Females; Gender; Gender differences; Husbands; Ideology; Individual Needs; intergenerational contact; Intergenerational Relationships; Kinship; Korea; Law; Least Squares Statistics; Males; Marital satisfaction; Marriage; Modernity; Modernization; Mothers; Norms; Nuclear family; Older parents; Older people; Parents; Parents & parenting; parent‐in‐law; Social cohesion; Spouses; Telephones; Urban Areas; Women; Womens Education
• ISSN: 0022-2445; 1741-3737
• DOI: 10.1111/jomf.12594

Objective: Guided by modernization theory and an intergenerational solidarity perspective, this study evaluated the differences in patterns of contact with non-coresident parents and parents-in-law in Korea at two time points 10 years apart and explored how these contact patterns were associated with gender and marital satisfaction. Background: Family relationships traditionally governed by Confucian patrilineal norms have been evolving into more egalitarian and bilateral patterns in contemporary Korea. Method: Data from the 2006 and 2016 Korean General Social Survey were examined. Analytic samples consisted of married respondents with at least one parent and one parent-in-law alive and no parent or parent-in-law coresiding with the respondents (2006, N = 493; 2016, N= 195). Chi-square tests and ordinary least squares regression models evaluated associations. Results: The findings overall revealed increased movement toward more egalitarian and bilateral intergenerational kin relationships over time, particularly among women. Equal face-to-face and phone contact with both sets of parents in 2006 and 2016 as well as more contact with in-laws in 2006 were linked to better marital satisfaction. More phone contact with in-laws, compared with equal contact, was associated with lower marital satisfaction among men in 2006, but not in 2016. Conclusion: The most happily married men and women in Korea might be those who find a way to adapt to changing kinship norms by simultaneously equally meeting their parents' and parents-in-law's needs for solidarity.