New as ever or Return to Normal:Marriage Duration,Husband-wife Consensus and Marital Satisfaction among Middle-aged and Older Adults
Marriage is an important bond that binds families together.Under the dual background of implementing the national strategy of actively coping with the aging population and promoting the construction of high-quality family style in the new era,it is of great practical significance to pay attention to the marriage issue of middle-aged and older adults.Some viewpoints suggest that after experiencing the"seven-year itch",a couple's marital relationship will gradually sta-bilize and become more mundane.But is this really the case?Based on the unbalanced panel data of China Family Pan-el Studies(CFPS)in 2014,2018 and 2020,this paper analyzes the influence of marriage duration on marital satisfaction of middle-aged and older adults by using bidirectional fixed effects and mediation effect models,and explores the medi-ating role of husband-wife consensus.The findings indicate that,first,from a baseline relationship perspective,marriage duration has a significant linear impact on the marital satisfaction of middle-aged and older adults:the longer the mar-riage,the higher the marital satisfaction.This conclusion remains robust across four different robustness test methods.Second,regarding group differences,compared to older adults and non-agricultural household groups,middle-aged indi-viduals and agricultural household groups are more likely to experience an increase in marital satisfaction as their mar-riage continues.Finally,from the perspective of internal mechanisms,husband-wife consensus is an important mecha-nism through which the length of marriage influences the marital satisfaction of middle-aged and older adults.The length of marriage enhances marital satisfaction by improving spousal consensus in areas such as women's marriage,childbirth,and household responsibilities.In this regard,in order to further promote the construction of harmonious marriage and family and improve the well-being of residents in their later years,we should accelerate the construction of a supportive policy system for marriage and family construction,actively promote the social concept of gender equality and responsi-bility sharing,and further strengthen and improve marriage and family counseling and education.
Middle-aged and Older AdultsMarriage DurationMarital SatisfactionHusband-wife ConsensusMechanism Test
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