Cultural Values of Traditionality / Modernity: Their Differential Impacts on Marital Conflict and Marital Satisfaction among Female and Male Migrant Workers in China

Abstract

There are 260 million migrant workers in China in 2012, most of whom left their spouses and/or children in the village. Due to long-term separation, there is an obvious concern over the marital relationships among these couples. In this study, the impacts of modernized or traditional attitudes in life among individual spouses and spousal separation on marital conflicts and marital satisfaction were examined. Three hundred and twenty-eight migrant workers were recruited through convenience sampling. SEM was used to investigate the interrelationship among different variables under study. Results indicated that spousal separation induced a higher level of marital conflicts among migrant couples. While the adoption of modernized attitudes protected marital satisfaction by decreasing marital conflicts only among female migrant workers, the adoption of traditional attitudes did not impact on marital conflicts, but surprisingly protected couples’ marital satisfaction. Theoretical implications of the differential roles of adopting modernized or traditional attitudes on life in marital relationship among marital couples were discussed. Moreover, practical recommendations were raised.