Xu An-Qi
Institute of Sociology Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences
Ye Wen-Zhen
Department of Economics Xiamen University
Based on the past literature, this paper redefines the concept of marital quality. Factor analysis method is used to measure the concept of marital quality. The major determinants of Chinese marital quality are identified by analyzing the data from a sampling survey conducted in the rural areas of Guangdong and Gansu Provinces of China in 1996.
In this article, the marital quality is understood from both of objective and subjective perspectives with five composites as its measures, including “satisfaction about spousal relationship”, “satisfaction about material aspect of marital life”, “sexual communication and happiness”, “delight of marital life”, and “spousal conflicts”. The results of analysis show that although Chinese rural couples were not satisfied with their material and sexual lives, they do have a relative high evaluation of their spousal relationship with an average score of five (the highest and lowest scores are seven and one, respectively). The equality, harmony, and mutual respect and trust are the main streams of spousal relationship in contemporary rural China. The findings also indicate that urbanization, income, marital basis, spousal similarity, recognition of the importance of sex and having initiative in sexual life have positive effects. Age, agricultural occupation, lack of husband’s resources, and spousal substitutive idea and opportunities have negative influences, and educational level, distribution of housework, and spousal power structure have no significant effects upon marital quality.
Keywords: rural areas, marital quality research