Age at Marriage, Role Enactment, Role Consensus, and Marital Satisfaction.

This paper uses quality of role enactment (role performance) and role consensus between spouses to examine the relationship between age at marriage and marital satisfaction. The authors hypothesize that age at marriage positively affects 1) the quality of self role enactment 2) the quality of spouses role enactment and 3) marital role consensus between spouses; that 4) role consensus positively affects the quality of the spouses role enactment; and that 5) the selfrole enactment 6) the spouses role enactment and 7) role censensus positively affect marital satisfaction. Three common family roles--provider child socialization and therapeutic roles--are particularly important for marital satisfaction. 704 couples from California Oregon Washington and Utah in their first marriage provide data in a 1976 survey. When compared to US census data the sample represents a broad cross section in terms of age educationoccupation and income with an overrepresentation of college-educated persons in professional occupations. Ages are grouped as 13-17 19-19 and 20 or more. Multiple regression analysis does not support the first three hypotheses but substantiates hypotheses 4-7: selfrole enactment has small relationship with marital satisfaction quality of spouses role enactment positively effects marital satisfaction and role consensus has a strong association with marital satisfaction explaining 44% and 35% of the variance in marital satisfaction of wives and husbands respectively. This study finds no evidence that early marriers have less role consensus or lower quality role enactment than later marriers; but the sample does not include early marriers who are already divorced. Longitudinal studies must follow early marriers to adequately test hypotheses on marriage age.