The Pattern between Marriage and Well-being: Disclosing Intimacy, Intergenerational Support, and Unconventional Marital Gradient

• Main Authors: Li, Wan-Zhen, 李宛真
• Other Authors: Wang, Wei-Pang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/68991278233260029012

碩士 === 東海大學 === 社會學系 === 102 === Previous research has shown that the impact of marriage on subjective health and well-being is mediated by spousal emotional support and tangible economic resources. However, much less research explores other explanations and discusses the health difference among the married people. By using data from the 2011 Taiwan Social Change Survey, this study presents the following findings. The first part of the research focuses on the total population and finds the married are healthier but not happier than their counterparts. The pattern is explained by familial emotional support and subjective income. The second part targets the married population and demonstrates the following patterns. First, people with higher level of disclosing intimacy relationship are healthier and happier. People who display gratitude toward his or her spouse and who fell grateful tend to display better subjective well-being. Besides, other marital quality indicators (such as being thoughtful, marital conflict, the idea of divorce, and marital satisfaction) are also associated with self-assessed health or happiness. Thirdly, emotionally intergenerational support benefits subjective well-being. Subsequently, people related with unconventional marital gradient (such as the wife being older, having better socioeconomic status, doing less household work than the husband, and having no son) report worse health and are unhappier. Last but not least, the conflicts between the idea and reality on age and housework dimensions of marital gradient are associated with worse subjective well-being.