A network perspective on marital satisfaction among older couples

Abstract

It will be helpful for older people to maintain good mental health by improving their marital satisfaction. The present study investigates how the elements of marital satisfaction among older couples are related to each other and reveal the key elements. Four hundred ninety-four older people participated in the study. Marital satisfaction was assessed by the 10-item marital satisfaction subscale of the ENRICH scale. Network analysis was adopted to estimate the network structure of these 10 items and the strength centrality of each item was calculated. The results showed that all edges in the final network were positive. Four edges with the strongest regularized partial correlations appeared between “leisure activities and spending time together” and “emotional expression”; “personality and habits” and “communication and understanding”; “economic status and the manner of determining economic affairs” and “relationship with relatives and friends”; and “make decisions and resolve conflict” and “emotional expression.” In addition, “emotional expression” had the highest node strength value in the network. “Communication and understanding” and “views are consistent” had the second and third highest node strength values, respectively. “Views are consistent” was more central in males than females and was the second central node in male networks. In conclusion, the present study offers a new perspective to deepen the understanding about the internal structure of marital satisfaction among older couples via network analysis. The results might provide potential targets of intervention for social workers or family therapists to greatly improve marital satisfaction among older couples.