Network structure, network support and the marital satisfaction of husbands and wives

Abstract

This study investigated the relationships between husbands' and wives' marital satisfaction, wives' labour force participation, and various aspects of the couples' social networks and social support in a sample of 166 families with at least one preschool-aged child. Wives experienced greater marital satisfaction when more of their own network members were related to each other, when they were friends with their husbands' network members and when their husbands nominated more relatives in their networks. For women with moderate labour force participation only, marital satisfaction decreased when the couple's network was less dense. Husbands experienced higher marital satisfaction when their wives had high or low rather than just moderate participation in the labour force. However, after adjusting for this, they also had higher marital satisfaction when they had more reciprocal relationships with their own network members, when more of their network members were related to their wives' network members, and when they considered more of their wives' network members to be their own friends. The results provided support for Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological model.