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The mediating role of marital relationship in the association between differentiation of self and happiness: Focusing on actor effects and partner effects  

Joo, Susanna (Dept. of Child and Family Studies, Yonsei Univ.)
Jun, Hey Jung (Dept. of Child and Family Studies, Yonsei Univ.)
Wang, Soon Kyung (Dept. of Child and Family Studies, Yonsei Univ.)
Publication Information
Journal of Family Relations / v.20, no.3, 2015 , pp. 113-132 More about this Journal
Abstract
Objectives: The purpose of this study is to examine whether differentiation of self affects the levels of happiness via the degree of marital relationship among middle-aged marital couples. Method: The data was collected as a dyad unit consisting of 349 married couples (N=698 individuals). The mean age of husbands and wives was 54.63 (SD=6.91) and 52.08 (SD=6.61), respectively. The participants were recruited through Healthy Family Support Centers in Gyeonggi-do who visited there in order to participate in couple intervention programs, and the survey was completed before the programs started. The mediation analysis was based on path analysis followed by bootstrapping with the use of Mplus 7.0. Results: The results showed that the actor effects were significant in the same way between husbands and wives, yet the partner effects were different by gender. Several indirect paths between the differentiation of self and happiness via marital relationship were found, in particular. That is, perceived differentiation of self had an indirect actor effect on happiness via marital relationship for both husbands and wives, respectively. Furthermore, the wives' differentiation of self had two indirect partner effects on their husbands happiness via marital relationship among wives and among husbands. Conclusions: These results suggest the importance of enhancing both differentiation of self and marital intimacy or marital communication in order to improve the levels of happiness in middle-aged marital relationships.
Keywords
differentiation of self; happiness; marital relationship; APIM(Actor-Partner Interdependence Model); mediation;
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