The purpose of this study is to find out the differences according to the types of marital relationships of the baby boomers maintaining long-term marriage using Fitzpatrick's Relational Dimensions Instrument(1988). The criteria for typification are i...
The purpose of this study is to find out the differences according to the types of marital relationships of the baby boomers maintaining long-term marriage using Fitzpatrick's Relational Dimensions Instrument(1988). The criteria for typification are ideology, interdependence, and communication, and there are six sub-factors: traditionality·autonomy in the area of interdependence, and claims·recommendations·and avoidance in the area of communication. The subjects of the study were 150 couples among the baby boomers living across the country, including Seoul, Gyeonggi-do, Chungcheong-do, and Jeolla-do, and data were collected using questionnaires structured with snowball sampling. As for the analysis method, descriptive statistical analysis, exploratory factor analysis, cluster analysis, and response sample t-test were performed. The following is a summary of the research results.
First, the personal types of baby boomers maintaining long-term marriage for marital relations were divided into three types, and were named as the convergence, autonomous, and avoidance type. Among the six sub-factors, the convergence type has the strongest traditional ideology, the autonomous type has the highest autonomous interdependence, and the avoidance type has evasive communication. The numver of individual types of marital relationships in the baby boomers is 31.7%, autonomous type 47%, and the avoidance type 21.3%, with the largest number of autonomous types.
Second, there are nine marital types depending on the combination of personal types for marital relationships. There are three "pure types”, a combination of couples with the same personal type, and six "mixed types” with different personal types. Like the individual type, the pure type was named convergence type, autonomous type, and avoidance type. The mixed types are convergence/autonomous, convergence/avoidance, autonomous/convergence, autonomous/avoidance, avoidance/convergence, and avoidance/autonomous type in the order of husband/wife. Among the baby boomer couples maintaining long-term marriage in Korea, the Mixed types were 24% and the Pure types were 76%. The pure type couples also showed the distribution of 23.3% convergence type, 35.3% autonomous type, and 17.3 avoidance type, with the largest number of autonomous couples. Among the mixed types, the distribution was 8.7%, convergence/ autonomy 7.3%, autonomy/ avoidance 4.7%, avoidance/ autonomy 2.7%, and convergence/ avoidance 0.7%. However, the avoidance/ convergence couple type did not appear. In this study, the number of data of the mixed type was insufficient, so it was grouped into one type and analyzed. It means that a total of four types were analyzed with three pure types and one mixed type.
Third, there were some differences between husbands and wives in types on the main variables of the demographic characteristics, individual characteristics, marital relations among the baby boomer couples maintaining long-term marriage. First, the convergence couples showed meaningful differences between husbands and wives in age, resilience, marital commitment, marital conflict, and marital satisfaction.
Next, the autonomous couples showed significant difference between husband and wife in the most variables, including age and education level, resilience, marital commitment, marital conflict, marriage satisfaction, and a family commitment. In addition, evasive couples showed mainingful differences between husbands and wives in age and education level, marital commitment, and marital satisfaction. Finally, the mixed type couples showed meaningful differences between husbands and wives in age, marital commitment, and marital conflict.
Through the results of this study, it was possible to understand the types of marital relationships of the baby boomer couples maintaining long-term marriage based on a multidimensional perspective, and the differences husbands and wives by types. Through this, a framework for future research on the categorization of marital relations in Korea was provides, and the necessity of development considering the types of marital relations was suggested for developing relationship improvement programs in family education and counseling fields.
Topic words: Baby boomers, long-term marriage maintenance, marital relationship type