Marital equality and the quality of long-term marriage in later life

Abstract

The study examines the relationship between husband-wife equality in late adulthood and two dimensions of marital quality: burn-out, and satisfaction with marriage. Husband-wife equality has been examined on the basis of marital power relations and the division of roles in three areas: in-home tasks, financial management, and social life. Equity theory provided the conceptual framework for the hypothesis that equality in various aspects of marriage enhances marital quality. The research sample consisted of 116 retired Israeli couples. Negative correlations were found between equality in family roles and burn-out among both husbands and wives. Surprisingly, equality in the performance of in-home roles correlated positively with burn-out among husbands. Moreover, equality in power relations correlated positively with marital satisfaction among wives. In addition, an interaction was found for wives' perceptions of equality in power relations and their husbands' level of burn-out. State of health correlated negatively with burn-out for both partners. Furthermore, husbands' religiosity explained a substantial percentage of the variance in their level of burn-out and marital satisfaction. On the whole, wives reported a higher level of burn-out and a lower level of marital satisfaction than did their husbands.