Marital Satisfaction in China: A Longitudinal Study of Dyadic Dynamics and Rural–Urban Differences

ABSTRACT Objective This study examined longitudinal dyadic associations in marital satisfaction among Chinese couples and whether these associations differed between rural and urban couples. Background Longitudinal research using data from both spouses to distinguish stable between‐couple differences from within‐couple dynamics in marital satisfaction remains limited, particularly in non‐Western contexts. Method Analyses used four waves of data from the China Family Panel Studies collected between 2014 and 2022. The sample included 6915 married couples. At baseline, husbands averaged 49.0 years of age (SD = 13.14) and wives averaged 50.4 years of age (SD = 13.50). We estimated cross‐lagged panel models (CLPMs) and random intercept cross‐lagged panel models (RI‐CLPM, including multigroup models by rural–urban residence. Results RI‐CLPM results showed positive between‐couple concordance between husbands' and wives' marital satisfaction. Within‐couple partner associations were positive in the first interval but became more asymmetric in later intervals. CLPM results similarly showed time‐varying partner associations. Multigroup analyses indicated that dyadic marital satisfaction processes differed between rural and urban couples. Conclusion Marital satisfaction among Chinese couples reflects both stable couple‐level alignment and time‐varying within‐couple dynamics. The findings suggest that partner associations in marital satisfaction shift over time and are conditioned by rural–urban context.