Examining trajectories of marital satisfaction to represent the resilience process among Indonesian married individuals

Abstract

Marriage is an important milestone for many adults, and notably in Indonesia, where marriage is also considered a personal accomplishment and social obligation. Research has found being married is associated with greater well-being, but marriages also face challenges. Resilience, defined as successfully adapting to challenges, is a potential concept to help married individuals maintain or regain adaptation despite challenges in marriages. This is the first relationship study in Indonesia to examine resilience trajectories as represented by marital satisfaction. A weekly repeated measure design was conducted among 135 Indonesian married individuals. Participants reported their experiences of intradyadic and extradyadic stress, and marital satisfaction over 6 weeks. Growth mixture modeling and multinomial logistic regression were used to examine unobserved marital satisfaction trajectories and to estimate the impact of intradyadic and extradyadic stress on trajectory membership. Results suggested three unobserved trajectories: high, moderate, and low levels of marital satisfaction. Higher levels of intradyadic and extradyadic stress increased the probability of belonging to lower satisfaction trajectories. This evidence could be invaluable in helping Indonesian married individuals to better adapt to challenges they face. Future studies can explore protective factors associated with a high satisfaction trajectory to assist married Indonesians in successfully adapting to stress.