Family Resilience and Midlife Marital Satisfaction

Abstract

This article describes the results of a research investigation of the relationship of midlife marital satisfaction and the three primary protective factors that, operationally defined by the Family Adaptation Model, contribute to family resilience: adaptive appraisal, compensating experiences, and social support. Midlife marital satisfaction was conceptualized using Duvall’s family life cycle theory’s ‘‘Middle Aged Family’’ stage tasks: (a) rebuilding the marriage relationship and (b) maintaining kin ties with older and younger generations. Participants included 239 couples, who were between the ages of 45 and 65 and whose youngest child was over 18 years old and graduated from high school. The relationship between the predictor and criterion variables was explored for both individual partners and couples. Analyses were also conducted to consider gender and ethnic group membership differences. The results showed significant positive relationships existed between the criterion variables (rebuilding the marriage relationship and maintaining kin ties with older and younger generations) and the predictor variables (adaptive appraisal, compensating experiences, and social support), thus providing support for the position that in the face of the developmental challenges encountered relative to midlife marriage, higher levels of the primary protective factors contributing to family resilience are related to greater levels of mastery of the developmental tasks associated with midlife marital satisfaction.

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