Why do we resolve marital conflicts the way we do? Self‐construals, marital conflict resolution strategies, and marital satisfaction in Japan and South Korea

Abstract

In this article, the research targeted middle‐aged wives who had been reported to be most dissatisfied with their marriage lives in the entire sex/generation groups in Japan and South Korea. As an exploratory study, the relationships between self‐construals (subjective, objective, and autonomous selves) and marital conflict resolution strategies (avoiding, dominating, yielding, and integrating) and those between the strategies and marital satisfaction were investigated. The model across the variables (taking the obliging and dominating strategies only) was constructed as well. Several important findings were revealed. First, subjective self and autonomous self were strongly and positively correlated and stronger in South Korea. Second, the Japanese had out‐of‐speculation relationships between self‐construals and marital resolution strategies. Third, the positive associations of integrating/obliging and marital satisfaction and the negative association of avoiding and marital satisfaction were validated in Japan and South Korea.