How Do Family-Friendly Policies Impact Marital Satisfaction: A Mediation Analysis of Korean Working Women

초록

This study examines the relationship between family-friendly policies and marital satisfaction and whether couple bonding activities mediate this association. This study used data from the Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women & Families (KLoWF), a nationally representative study of Korean women, and estimated fixed-effects models examining whether family-friendly policies are associated with marital satisfaction. Sobel mediation analyses were conducted to investigate whether couple bonding activities mediate the association. Family-friendly workplace policies were positively associated with marital satisfaction (beta = 0.531), after accounting for individual-level confounders. Family-friendly workplace policies were also associated with more engagement in cultural activities and physical activities with a partner (beta s = 0.042 and 0.068, respectively). Mediation analyses showed that couple bonding activities explained 16.7% of the association between family-friendly workplace policies and marital satisfaction. Family-friendly policies may enhance the quality of working women's marital life through an increase in engagement in couple bonding activities.

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