Giving or receiving spouse care and marital satisfaction among older Korean individuals

Health challenges are expected in later life, but they may place older married adults in Korea at greater risk than in the past due to increasing risks of extended morbidity associated with a longer lifespan, and limited availability of traditional long-term care provided by children in an extended family context. As spouse care has become more prevalent among older adults, the present study examined whether provision or receipt of spouse care might be differentially associated with marital quality for men and women, and whether availability of care from adult children (i.e., sons, daughters, or children-in-law) might moderate the association between receipt of spouse care and marital satisfaction. The analytic sample was drawn from five waves of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing (2006–2014), consisting of married individuals, with both age 60 years or older at Wave 1. For analyses, multilevel models were estimated using SAS PROC MIXED. Findings showed that first, for men, becoming a caregiver for their wife was associated with a small increase in marital satisfaction; the transition to spouse caregiving was associated with a decline in marital satisfaction for women. Secondly, transitioning to receiving spouse care was associated with a decline in marital satisfaction among men, but an increase in marital satisfaction for women. Third, new care from daughters in the form of (I)ADL assistance was associated with a benefit to marital satisfaction among men and women who began to receive care from their spouses. Overall, findings highlighted Korean families in transition. Marriage might fare better in a more recent form of family care—husbands providing care for their wives. In addition, daughters might play a bigger role in family care now compared to daughters-in-law, the designated provider of family care under the Confucian patriarchal system.