Marital Satisfaction among Korean Commuter Couples

In Korea, some dual-earner married couples, where both husbands and wives have careers, live separately because their workplaces are located too far for a daily commute. These "commuter couples" are on the rise all over the world. In general, physical closeness is important for the quality of the relationships; thus, marital satisfaction is one of the most important issues in the literature on commuter couples. While some studies found a lower quality of relationships among commuter couples, others found cohesive and trustful relationships in these couples. However, the existing studies were conducted mainly with convenience samples of specific occupational groups in developed countries. Using a recent representative sample of commuter couples in Korea, this study found that commuter couples report lower levels of marital satisfaction compared to typical dual-earner couples. Additionally, this study found that in commuter couples, wives feel less marital satisfaction compared to their husbands.