Abstract
Objectives
Previous research suggests married individuals tend to be healthier and happier, however, we know little about the associations between subjective well-being and marriage expectations among never-married emerging adults, with less research in Asian context. This study examined how national context and individual subjective well-being are associated with emerging adults’ marriage expectations in three Asian countries—South Korea, China, and Vietnam—which share the traditional Confucian marriage norms but differ in the degree of industrialization.
Methods
Using convenience sampling, data came from 1,019 never-married college students living in the cities of Korea, China, and Vietnam.
Results
The majority of the participants across the three countries had marriage intentions. The higher the subjective well-being, the more likely the participants were to have marriage intentions, and the earlier the expected marriage age. Cross-country difference was observed such that emerging adults from Korea were more likely to expect later marriage age than their counterparts from China and Vietnam. There was also gender difference in the association between subjective well-being and expected marriage age; the negative association between subjective well-being and expected marriage age was found for men, but not for women.
Conclusions
The current study provides empirical evidence that national context and subjective well-being are associated with emerging adults’ expectations about future marriage. Given that higher subjective well-being was associated with more intentions to marry and an earlier expected marriage age beyond the national context, enhancing individual well-being through mental health promotions could be an effective pro-marriage policy.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Liu Xing and Duong Thi Nhat Anh for their helpful data collection.
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G.Y.: developed the study design, initiated the research questions, and drafted the manuscript. S.L.: performed the analyses and collaborated with the writing of the study. All authors contributed to the revision of the manuscript and approved the final submitted version.
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The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
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All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee (Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Republic of Korea).
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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
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This research is an expanded version of a poster presentation at the 2015 Korean Association of Family Relations (KAFR) International Conference, November 3, 2015, Seoul, Korea.
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Yoo, G., Lee, S. The Associations of National Context and Subjective Well-being with Marriage Expectations Among Korean, Chinese, and Vietnamese Emerging Adults. J Child Fam Stud 28, 1998–2006 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-019-01427-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-019-01427-3