Love for a Marriage Story: The Association Between Love and Marital Satisfaction in Middle Adulthood

The present study examined the associations between perceptions of love and marital satisfaction and gender moderations among Korean middle-aged married men and women. Two hundred and four married middle adults aged 40 to 59 living with heterosexual spouses in Seoul participated in this study. Regression based moderation analysis was utilized using PROCESS MACRO. Results showed that the average of love perception was the moderate level, and men reported higher perceptions of love, passion, commitment, and marital satisfaction compared to women, while no gender difference in perception of intimacy. Also, love and its three components were positively associated with marital satisfaction. The moderation effect of gender on the association between perception of intimacy and marital satisfaction was significant. Specifically, women showed stronger association between perception of intimacy and marital satisfaction than men did. These results imply that love plays an important role in strengthening marital quality in general, but the intimate interactions were gendered in middle adulthood marriage context in South Korea.