기혼자의 결혼 전후 삶의 만족도 변화: 성별과 학력 및 직업 동질혼의 조절효과를 중심으로

Abstract

This study examines how a transition into marriage is associated with changes in life satisfaction and whether it varies by gender and educational and occupational assortative mating. These questions were addressed by using 14 waves of the Korean Welfare Panel Study (543 respondents or 6,149 person-wave observations). Applying fixed-effects regression models, the author first found that the transition into marriage was associated with an initial rise and subsequent decline in life satisfaction. Life satisfaction increased after reaching its lowest level in the third year of marriage. Second, the changing pattern of life satisfaction before and after transition into marriage was more pronounced in women than in men. Third, this was less pronounced in respondents whose spouses were classified in the same occupational categories than in respondents whose spouses were classified in different occupational categories. This study contributes to the literature on marriage by taking into account the premarital level of life satisfaction, showing the effect of the transition into marriage not being constant over time, and revealing the moderating roles of gender and occupational assortative mating through the benefits of marriage in terms of life satisfaction.