• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.25 no.3 s.87
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• pp.1-23
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• 2007

This study provides basic materials that assist in marital counselling and marital therapy intervention through its analysis of the effects of marital communication and marital intimacy on psychological well-being and its systematic focus on middle-aged married men and women of social interest and importance. The subjects of this study were married men and women, aged 40 to 59, living in the metropolitan areas of Seoul and Kyeonggi; the study excluded those who were divorced, bereaved or whose last child was in over high school, but included those who were separated or in a second marriage. A total of 396 people, 134 men and 262 women, were included in the study. The major findings of this study are as follows. First, middle-aged married men recorded higher levels of marital communication and marital intimacy than middle-aged married women. While women showed higher levels of depression than men, there was no difference between men and women in terms of overall life satisfaction. Second, there were differences in marital communication, marital intimacy, and psychological well-being among middle-aged married men and women according to background variables. Third, marital communication and marital intimacy were shown to affect the life satisfaction of both middle-aged married men and women. Of the two, marital communication had more the influence. Marital communication also had the biggest influence on levels of depression among both middle-aged married men and women.