Marital Interaction in Middle and Old Age: A Predictor of Marital Satisfaction?

Many studies point out the importance of marital satisfaction for well-being. However, although being married is still the norm in middle and old age, research on the determinants of marital satisfaction has neglected long-term marriages. While research on short-term marriages mainly focuses on partner fit (e.g., in personality traits and socio-economic status), marital interactions should be more important for marital satisfaction in long-term marriages. In this article we examine the role of both stable, dispositional factors and of marital interaction in predicting marital satisfaction in long-term marriages in middle and old age. With data from 588 married women and men in middle and old age who participated in the Interdisciplinary Longitudinal Study of Adult Development (ILSE), we examined age and gender differences in the role of socio-economic status, personality, and marital interaction as predictors of marital satisfaction. Results showed a) that socio-economic factors and personality played a minor role in predicting marital satisfaction, and b) that a high quality of dyadic interaction was particularly important for the marital satisfaction of women. The implications of these findings for future research and interventions on marital interaction in middle and old age are discussed.