Actor and Partner Effect Differences on Life Satisfaction of Korean Elderly Couples: Comparison between Baby Boom (1955-1963) and Pre-Independence (-1945) Generations (WITHDRAWN)

Background: From existing studies, the happiness of elderly was usually measured quality of life or successful aging. However, these terms are mostly focused on material or cognitive aspects, such as economical affluence and physical health, so these cannot properly reflect the life of Korean elderly, who are widely suffered by poverty and chronic diseases. As an alternative solution, the researcher proposes ‘Life satisfaction’ to measure the subjective aspect of elderly lives. For influential factors of elderly life satisfaction, this study tries to investigate the actor and partner effects from each spouse, inspired from Interdependence theory. Moreover, considering the uniqueness of Korean historical background, this study has classified Korean elderly into two groups; baby boom and pre-independence generations.

Method: Using the fifth waves of Korean Retirement and Income Study (KReIS), which can represent the characteristics of Korean elderly, the data for this study was consisted of 1,977 couples (baby boom: 1022 dyads pre-independence: 955 dyads). The influential factors on life satisfaction were measured by four categories; physical, psychological, socio-relational, economical, and other factors. For analyzing methods, the Actor-partner Interdependence Model (APIM) in multi-level analysis was used to figure out the influence from each spouse, using SAS 9.4.

Results: In both age groups, social support showed actor and partner effects on their life satisfaction. For baby boom generations, life satisfaction of male respondents was negatively affected by the leisure satisfaction of their wives (t-value: -2,51, p>.05), and house income was significantly affected to their life satisfaction (male: 4.05, p<.001, female: 2.12, p<.001). Especially, education level of baby boom male was significant factor for their life satisfaction both male and female (male: 2.98, p<.01, female3.04, p<.01). For pre-independence generations, stress level of male respondents (t-value: -5.53, p<.001) and leisure satisfaction of each spouse (male: 2.76, p<.01, female: 3.01, p<.01) significantly affect to their life satisfaction.

Implications: From the results of analysis, it can be inferred that the importance of each spouse on life satisfaction of Korean elderly. Also, there was a number of difference on influencing factors by the age groups, which derived from their cohort characteristics. For baby boom generations, intervention for retirement preparation and marital issues that could be evoked from the education gap. Moreover, for pre-independence generations, stress adaptation and the encouragement of couple leisure activities were needed by promoting their happy lives.