A Tale of Two Societies: Social Engagement, Marital Satisfaction, and Depressive Symptoms Among Couples in Rural and Urban China

ObjectivesPrevious research on social activity engagement in later life predominantly employed an individual-focused approach, restricting our understanding of how engagement in social activities as a couple can influence both relational and individual outcomes. This study examines the relationship between couples’ combination of social engagement and husbands’ and wives’ marital satisfaction, and subsequently, their depressive symptoms.MethodsThree waves of data on a sample of 3,889 couples from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study were used. We tested 3 operationalizations of couples’ combination of social engagement—profile-based similarity (i.e., how similar a husband and wife are in their engagement in specific activities), difference score-based similarity (i.e., the absolute difference between a husband and a wife), and a couple’s overall engagement level (i.e., the average of a couple’s engagement scores)—to ascertain their associations with marital satisfaction and depressive symptoms. We also investigated how these associations differed between rural and urban couples.ResultsOur results reveal that—in urban but not rural areas—a couple’s higher overall engagement level positively influences both partners’ relational and individual well-being, and these associations vary by gender.DiscussionCouples’ overall level of activity engagement during midlife and older adulthood positively influences both partners’ well-being. Promoting social engagement within couples presents a promising intervention strategy to disrupt the well-documented reciprocal link between social engagement and depressive symptoms.