J Child Fam Stud (2015) 24:772–783
DOI 10.1007/s10826-013-9888-x
ORIGINAL PAPER
The Spillover Effect of Parenting on Marital Satisfaction
Among Chinese Mothers
Sylvia Y. C. L. Kwok • Leveda Cheng •
Bonnie W. Y. Chow • Chloe C. Y. Ling
Published online: 5 December 2013
Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Abstract Marital satisfaction is crucial to mothers’ well-
being, as well as parent–child relationship and family func-
tioning. Existing literature has shown the impact of marital
relationship on parenting. Yet, there are few studies to
examine the impact of parenting on marital satisfaction.
Family systems theory postulates that there is a reciprocal
association between functioning in the parental and spousal
subsystems. This study thus aims to examine the associations
of various parenting correlates, including parenting self-effi-
cacy, parenting stress, co-parenting alliance, satisfaction with
father involvement, and marital satisfaction of mothers. A
cross-sectional survey was conducted and a sample of 1,140
mothers was recruited in this study using convenience sam-
pling from 20 nurseries. After controlling for mothers’ age,
education level, and household income, hierarchical regres-
sion analyses showed that greater co-parenting alliance,
higher satisfaction with father involvement, and lower par-
enting stress were associated with higher maternal marital
satisfaction. Findings support the ‘‘spillover’’ hypothesis in
the family systems theory, indicating that positive factors in
the parental subsystem are significantly associated with higher
marital satisfaction in the spousal subsystem. Measures that
cultivate father involvement, alleviate mothers’ parenting
stress, and improve co-parenting alliance may be adopted to
increase mothers’ marital satisfaction and maintain marital
relationship.
S. Y. C. L. Kwok (&)
L. Cheng
B. W. Y. Chow

C. C. Y. Ling
Department of Applied Social Studies, City University of Hong
Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong
e-mail: scyckwok@cityu.edu.hk
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Keywords Marital satisfaction
Father involvement

Co-parenting alliance
Parenting stress
Parenting
self-efficacy
Introduction
Marital satisfaction plays an important role in mothers’
well-being because it indicates mothers’ affective evalua-
tion of their marriage and reflects any differences between
spouses’ perception and expectations of the other spouse
and the marriage (Feldman et al. 1990). Studies have
demonstrated a close relationship between marital satis-
faction and individuals’ physical and psychological health
(Keresteš et al. 2012; Shek 1995). For instance, Shek
(1995) studied 1,501 married adults in Hong Kong, China,
and reported that marital quality was positively related to
positive mental-health measures, such as individuals’ per-
ceived health status, and negatively related to psychiatric
symptoms and midlife-crisis symptoms. Also, poor marital
satisfaction may undermine parent–child relationship and
family functioning (Erel and Burman 1995). Furthermore,
Anthony (2008) found that dyadic relationships including
marital satisfaction exerted a strong influence on family
cohesion and adaptability among married parents in South
California. Due to the impact marital satisfaction has on an
individual’s well-being and mental health as well as on
one’s family, it is essential to understand the factors that
may influence marital satisfaction and the ways to enhance
it.
With reference to family systems theory, a family is a
system organised into a set of relationships. Family subsys-
tems are designated to perform particular functions or pro-
cesses within the family (Goldenberg and Goldenberg 2008).
As each family member belongs to several subsystems, e.g.
J Child Fam Stud (2015) 24:772–783
spousal and parental subsystems, he or she enters into different
complementary relationship with other members. Thus, a
woman relates to her husband both as a mother and a wife.
Subsystems within the family are interdependent. Behaviour
and emotions experienced in one subsystem (e.g. parental
subsystem) will be transferred to another subsystem (e.g.
spousal subsystem) as well (Erel and Burman 1995).
Numerous studies have shown that feelings of dissatisfaction
within a marriage and interparental conflicts would lead to
negative parenting and negative parent–child relationship
(Erel and Burman 1995; Krishnakumar and Buehler 2000).
This is termed the ‘‘spillover’’ effect (De Luccie 1995). On the
contrary, some researchers believed that unhappy couples
would be more involved with their children in order to com-
pensate for the affection or satisfaction lacking in the marital
relationship (Goldberg and Easterbrooks 1984). This is known
as the ‘‘compensatory’’ hypothesis (Engfer 1988). However,
as the family systems theory suggests that family subsystems
are interrelated and interdependent, the linkage between
marital and parent–child relationships should be bidirectional.
In other words, positive and negative feelings arising from the
co-parenting relationship or parenting practices would also
influence marital relationship. Given that most of the previous
studies have focused on investigating the impact of marital
relationship on parenting or parent–child relationship (Croc-
kenberg and Langrock 2001; Troxel and Matthews 2004),
relatively little is known about the impact parent–child rela-
tionship has on marital quality. It remains to be examined
whether the association between the two subsystems, if rela-
ted, is positive (as suggested by the ‘‘spillover’’ hypothesis) or
negative (as suggested by the ‘‘compensatory’’ hypothesis).
Very few studies have looked at the impact of parenting
on marital satisfaction in a non-Western context. Unlike
Western people, Chinese people view marriage as the
linkage between two families. Chinese marriage serves as
the continuation of the next generation (Wu and Yi 2003).
In a collective sense, interdependence and a harmonious
relationship among family members are heavily empha-
sised in Asian families (Chao and Tseng 2002). Parent–
child relationship is more important than marital relation-
ship in Chinese societies and satisfaction from parenting
precedes marital satisfaction (Chang et al. 2004). Fulfill-
ment of the parental role and responsibility may contribute
to marital satisfaction. Owing to the cultural differences in
the perspective of marriage and parenting, there is a need to
review the relationship between parenting and marital
satisfaction in the Chinese context.
Parenting involvement, co-parenting alliance, parenting
self-efficacy, and parenting stress were the most commonly
studied parenting variables in the marriage–parenting lit-
erature (Grych 2002). They were found to be very impor-
tant for fostering healthy child adjustment (Amato and
Fowler 2002; Teubert and Pinquart 2010; Deater-Deckard
773
1998; Jones and Prinz 2005). Investigations of these par-
enting variables help provide information on ways that
parenting practice may affect marital relationship.
Some Western studies have examined the relationship
between mothers’ satisfaction with father involvement and
mothers’ marital satisfaction. In a study conducted in the
United States, Mehall et al. (2009) found a positive relation-
ship between father involvement and parents’ marital satis-
faction in early infancy (at 11 months). According to the
‘‘spillover’’ hypothesis, satisfaction in parenting would ‘‘spill
over’’ to affect marital relationship. While mothers were sat-
isfied with fathers’ engagement in child care, they felt the
support and concern from the fathers and therefore would be
more satisfied with the marital relationship (De Luccie 1995).
As an alternative view, the ‘‘compensatory’’ hypothesis sug-
gested that parents dissatisfied in their marital relationship
would seek compensation in the parent–child relationship by
having more involvement with their children (Engfer 1988).
With the interaction of both traditional Confucian beliefs and
modern family values, Hong Kong Chinese mothers may hold
different views of father involvement than Western mothers.
Under the influence of Confucianism, family roles and
expectations in Chinese societies differ substantially from
those that predominate in Western societies. Mothers are
considered as the nurturer and caregiver of children while
fathers are portrayed as hardworking and distant figures in
Chinese families (Lamb and Tamis-Lemonda 2004). How-
ever, with the rise of dual-earner families, fathers’ involve-
ment with children has become increasingly important in
Hong Kong (Aryee and Luk 1996).
Previous studies have illustrated a close link between
co-parenting alliance and marital satisfaction (Weissman
and Cohen 1985; Morrill et al. 2010). Co-parenting alliance
refers to the consensus parents have when working together
to raise a child (Talbot and McHale 2004). A study con-
ducted in the United States found that positive, supportive
marital relationships were positively related to co-parental
cooperation and negatively related to co-parental triangu-
lation and co-parental conflict in families with young
children (Kolak and Volling 2007). The authors explained
such finding using the similarity hypothesis, which pre-
dicted that spouses who were perceived to be more similar
to each other displayed greater marital satisfaction than
spouses who were dissimilar because the former shared
similar views towards parenting and thus were more
compatible (Gattis et al. 2004). Nevertheless, co-parenting
behaviour was less vulnerable to low marital quality when
fathers were more flexible and more open-minded (Talbot
and McHale 2004). Since the Chinese hold a more con-
servative view in the attitudes towards marital roles when
compared to the Americans (Chia et al. 1994), the impact
of co-parenting quality on marital satisfaction may be more
significant in Chinese societies.
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774
Empirical evidence supported an association between
mothers’ parenting self-efficacy and their marital satisfac-
tion (Benson and Kersh 2011). Parenting self-efficacy is
defined as ‘‘feelings of competence in the caregiving role’’
(Kuhn and Carter 2006). Some studies indicated that par-
enting self-efficacy was positively related to marital satis-
faction (Kersh et al. 2006; Meijer and van den Wittenboer
2007). This matches with the ‘‘spillover’’ hypothesis.
However, Merrifield (2010) found that mothers’ marital
satisfaction was negatively related to their parenting self-
efficacy. This echoes the ‘‘compensatory’’ hypothesis. It is
possible that less satisfied mothers put more effort into
their parent–child relationship in order to compensate for
the poor marriage. The great effort they invested into
parent–child relationship may boost their confidence in
parenting. Since the results delineating the association
between parenting self-efficacy and marital satisfaction are
controversial, it is important to study such relationship in
greater detail. In Chinese culture, parenting self-efficacy
arises from the achievements of children (Yeh and Yang
1997). How well Chinese children behave and what they
achieve represent how well their parents nurture them
(Shwalb et al. 2012). This is very different from the
Western culture where parenting self-efficacy is derived
from a harmonious parent–child relationship (Allen and
Daly 2007).
Studies have found a strong relationship between par-
enting stress and mothers’ marital satisfaction. For exam-
ple, some studies demonstrated a negative relationship
between parenting stress and marital satisfaction (Gerstein
et al. 2009; Kersh et al. 2006; Mulsow et al. 2002). As
stated in the ‘‘spillover’’ hypothesis, stress arose from
parenting may ‘‘spill over’’ and pose a threat to marital
relationships. As Chinese mothers tend to suppress their
feelings and keep their problems to themselves, they may
encounter more parenting stress than Western mothers
(Kwok and Wong 2000). Besides, Chinese mothers may
adapt to and cope with parenting stress in a way different
from Western mothers. For instance, Chinese mothers may
complain and moan about their stress to their spouse,
leading to the triangulation of the spouse into the mother–
child relationship. This may then jeopardise marital rela-
tionship (Cheng and Kuo 2008).
Parenting determines the cognitive, emotional, and
social growth of children especially during early childhood.
According to Erik Erikson (1950), the developmental crisis
of children at this stage is initiative versus guilt. Children at
this stage usually have the classic ‘‘oedipal struggle’’ and
resolve this struggle through ‘‘social role identification’’. If
children’s natural desires and goals cannot be met, they
may easily feel frustrated and experience guilt. At the early
stage of development, parenting is particularly important to
children because the most significant relationships children
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J Child Fam Stud (2015) 24:772–783
have at that time are with their parents. Children of dif-
ferent ages exert different demands on their parents’ time
and energy. For example, children of age two to six are
going through a ‘‘stormy’’ period which involves tantrums,
stubbornness, and negativity (Erikson 1950). This poses a
great challenge to married couples as it places additional
strain and strife on parenting, parent–child relationships,
and marriage, leading to an early marital dissatisfaction.
Such early marital dissatisfaction may accumulate, become
increasingly difficult to tolerate over time, and potentially
lead to divorce (Hirschberger et al. 2009).
The purpose of this study was to examine the relation-
ship between various parenting variables, namely, parent-
ing stress, parenting self-efficacy, satisfaction with father
involvement, co-parenting alliance, and marital satisfaction
of Chinese mothers in Hong Kong, China. Theoretical
rationales for both the ‘‘spillover’’ and ‘‘compensatory’’
hypotheses have been offered to explain the influence of
marriage on parenting in previous studies. However, it is
yet to be determined which hypothesis better explains the
effect of parenting, if any, on marital satisfaction rela-
tionship in Chinese mothers. The current study thus
intended to address this issue. Furthermore, the targeted
sample focused on mothers of children aged two to six
because, as mentioned above, this group of mothers often
experience great challenges in parenting and marriage. Due
to the importance of father involvement to Chinese moth-
ers, we hypothesised that mothers’ satisfaction with father
involvement would have a positive effect on marital sat-
isfaction (Hypothesis 1). Based on Gattis et al.’s (2004)
similarity hypothesis, we hypothesised that co-parenting
alliance would have a positive effect on mothers’ marital
satisfaction (Hypothesis 2). In addition, we hypothesised
that mothers’ parenting self-efficacy would have a positive
effect on their marital satisfaction (Hypothesis 3). Last but
not least, we hypothesised that mothers’ parenting stress
would have a negative effect on their marital satisfaction
(Hypothesis 4). Support for our hypotheses will indicate
the occurrence of the ‘‘spillover’’ effect. However, an
association in the opposite direction will denote the
‘‘compensatory’’ effect.
Method
Participants
A cross-sectional survey was conducted and mothers of
children aged two to six were recruited in this study using
convenience sampling. Consent was obtained from the
principals of the nurseries that children were attending. A
total of 1,430 questionnaires were sent to 20 nurseries
located in Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New
J Child Fam Stud (2015) 24:772–783 775

Table 1 Demographic characteristics of the participants (N = 1,140) reward. Since the questionnaires were anonymous, indi-
Demographic variable N (%) M (SD)
vidual participants could not be identified.

Age (years) 33.7 (5.1) Measures

Number of children
1 481 (42.1) All the measuring instruments, except the Chinese versions
2 552 (48.5) of Parenting Stress Index and the Self-efficacy Subscale in
3 or more 107 (9.4) the Parenting Sense of Competency Scale, were concep-
Household income (HK$) 20,637.2 tually translated to Chinese (in Cantonese dialect), and then
(16,653.5) back-translated to English from Chinese by two profes-
Below $10,000 321 (28.2) sional translators. Discrepancies between the English and
$10,000–$29,999 561 (49.2) Chinese versions were evaluated and gradually reduced
$30,000 or above 258 (22.6) through a review meeting. The content validity and cultural
Education level relevance of the scales were evaluated by an expert panel
No formal education 3 (.3) that consisted of five members who had over five years’
Primary education (Grade 1–6) 70 (6.1) experience of providing social work or counselling services
Secondary education (Grade 7–13) 871 (76.4) to parents. All panel members generally agreed that the test
Post-secondary education 196 (17.2) items were valid and culturally relevant.
Employment status
With full-time job 483 (42.4) Parenting Self-efficacy
Without full-time job (i.e. part-time 657 (57.6)
job or housewives) The Self-efficacy Subscale in the Parenting Sense of
Domestic helper Competency Scale (Gibaud-Wallston and Wandersmann
With 176 (15.4) 1978) was adopted for use in the present study. The sub-
Without 964 (84.6) scale consists of seven items and attempts to explore the
Years married 8.2 (4.2) perceived abilities of the parents to deal with the demands
of parenting. A sample item is: ‘‘I meet my own personal
expectations for expertise in caring for my child’’. The
Chinese version of the Self-efficacy Subscale has been used
Territories and 1,170 questionnaires were collected. The
in previous parenting studies in Hong Kong, China (Kwok
return rate was 82 %, which was quite satisfactory. All
and Wong 2000; Wong et al. 2003; Kwok et al. 2012).
participants gave their written, signed informed consent
Mothers rated their level of agreement with each item on a
before taking part in the study. Among the returned ques-
5-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5
tionnaires, 30 were excluded due to missing data. Hence, a
(strongly agree). Higher scores indicate greater perceived
total of 1,140 were included in the data analyses. The mean
self-efficacy. The scale had good reliability (a = .79) and
age of the mothers is 33.8 (SD = 5.1). Background infor-
predicted both internalising and externalising behaviour in
mation of the participants is listed in Table 1.
children (Ohan et al. 2000). Reliability of the scale in the
present study was good (a = .87).
Procedures
Co-parenting Alliance
The Research Ethics Sub-committee of the City University
of Hong Kong had approved the human ethics review of Co-parenting alliance was measured by the Parenting Alliance
this study. A focus group was held with eight mothers to Inventory (PAI), a 20-item scale developed by Abidin and
collect their opinions and assess the readability and Brunner (1995) to assess the degree to which parents believed
understanding of the questionnaire. The questionnaire was that they had a sound co-parenting relationship with their
revised according to the group’s feedback. Consent forms child’s other parent. The scale was divided into three domains:
were then sent to the nurseries and signed by the mothers. emotional appraisal of spouse’s parenting, spousal confidence
The purpose of the study was clearly explained in the in own parenting, shared philosophy and perceptions of par-
forms. It was stressed that participation was completely enting. It includes items such as ‘‘My child’s other parent and I
voluntary and would not affect the learning opportunities communicate well about our child’’. Each item was rated
of their children in the nurseries. Questionnaires were then using a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 = strongly dis-
distributed to those who agreed to participate in the study. agree to 5 = strongly agree. Higher scores indicate greater
A food coupon was given to the participating mother as a perceived parenting alliance. With reference to Abidin and

123
776
Brunner (1995), the scale showed high reliability (a = .97)
and discriminated accurately between couples who were
married, separated, and divorced. The PAI has also demon-
strated convergent validity with measures of marital satis-
faction, parenting stress, and parenting style. Reliability of the
scale in the present study was very good (a = .92).
Satisfaction with Father Involvement
Satisfaction with father involvement was measured by the
Inventory of Father Involvement (IFI-26), a 26-item scale
developed by Hawkins et al. (2002) to assess how satisfied a
parent regarded the father’s performance on different father
dimensions over the past year. With reference to Hawkins
et al.’s study, the nine dimensions are: Discipline and
Teaching Responsibility, School Encouragement, Giving
Support to Mother, Providing, Time and Talking Together,
Praise and Affection, Developing Talents and Future Con-
cerns, Reading and Homework Support, and Attentiveness.
Each item was rated using a 6-point Likert scale (from
1 = very dissatisfied to 6 = very satisfied). Higher scores
indicate greater satisfaction with father involvement. A sam-
ple item is: ‘‘Being involved in the daily or regular routine of
taking care of your children’s basic needs or activities’’. The
Chinese version of IFI has been used in father studies in Hong
Kong, China (Fong 2004; Kwok et al. 2012). The scale was
able to distinguish fathers of intact married families with those
who were separated or divorced on attentiveness, providing
and giving support to mother (Hawkins et al. 2002). Reli-
ability of the scale in the present study is excellent (a = .96).
Parenting Stress
The Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF) is a
36-item scale developed by Abidin (1995) to assess par-
enting stress arising from three domains: parental distress
(PD) that measures an impaired sense of parental compe-
tence and depression, parent–child dysfunctional interac-
tion (PCDI) that measures unsatisfactory parent–child
interaction, and difficult child (DC) that measures behav-
ioural characteristics of the child that make him/her either
easy or difficult to manage. A sample item is: ‘‘I expected
to have closer and warmer feelings for my child than I do
and this bothers me (PCDI)’’. The Chinese version of the
PSI was validated through factor analysis using 475 parents
of children in a primary school in Hong Kong, China (Lam
1999). The Chinese PSI was found to correlate with anger
expression and helped to identify the more stressful parents
with different sources of stress. For each item, parents rate
their extent of agreement in a 5-point Likert scale from 1
(strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Higher scores
indicate higher levels of parenting stress. Reliability of the
scale in the present study is very good (a = .93).
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J Child Fam Stud (2015) 24:772–783
Marital Satisfaction
The Index of Marital Satisfaction (IMS) is a 25-item scale
developed by Hudson (1997) to measure the degree,
severity, or magnitude of a problem one partner has in the
marital relationship. Scoring followed a 5-point Likert
format, with responses ranging from 1 (strongly disagree)
to 5 (strongly agree). A sample item is: ‘‘I feel that ours is a
very happy relationship’’. Higher scores indicate higher
level of perceived marital satisfaction. According to Hud-
son (1997), the scale has demonstrated high reliability
(a = .96), and temporal stability, with a test–retest corre-
lation of .96 (Corcoran and Fischer 1987). The IMS had
excellent concurrent validity, correlating significantly with
the Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Test (Locke and
Wallace 1959). In addition, the IMS had good construct
validity, correlating significantly with measures such as
sexual satisfaction and marital problems. The Chinese
version of IMS has been adopted in previous marital
studies in Hong Kong, China (Lee et al. 2004; Kwok et al.
2012). Reliability of the scale in the present study was
excellent (a = .95).
Mothers’ Demographics
Different demographic variables (e.g. age, number of
children, household income, employment status, educa-
tional level, with or without domestic helper, and years
married) were incorporated as covariates in hierarchical
regression analyses of the current study.
Data Analyses
All data analyses were done using SPSS/PASW version 18.
The Cronbach’s alpha (a) was first computed to check the
reliability of the scales. Descriptive statistics, including the
mean and standard deviation of each variable were then
calculated. Pearson’s correlation analyses were carried out
to investigate the relationships between different parenting
correlates and marital satisfaction of mothers.
A hierarchical regression analysis was also performed to
assess the effect of parenting correlates in predicting the
dependent variable, the mothers’ marital satisfaction. In the
regression analysis, all aforementioned demographic vari-
ables were entered in the first step as controls, with co-
parenting alliance, satisfaction with father involvement,
parenting stress, and parenting self-efficacy entered as
independent variables in the second step. Variables were
entered in this order to determine the contributions of
parenting variables to mothers’ marital satisfaction after
the effects of background demographic factors were con-
trolled for. Multicollinearity check using variation inflation
factor (VIF) as diagnostics would also be done.
J Child Fam Stud (2015) 24:772–783 777

96.1 (16.7)
77.0 (11.0)
137.9 (23.1)
86.6 (18.0)
Results

24.6 (3.9)
M (SD)
Descriptive statistics of different variables were presented
in Table 1. Pearson correlation analyses showed that co-
parenting alliance (r = .69, p \ .001), satisfaction with
12

–
father involvement (r = .66, p \ .001), and parenting self-
efficacy (r = .34, p \ .001) were significantly and posi-

-.11***
tively correlated with mothers’ marital satisfaction. Par-
enting stress was significantly and negatively correlated
11

–
with mothers’ marital satisfaction (r = -.49, p \ .001)
Table 2 Means, standard deviations, and Pearson correlations between demographic and parenting variables and mothers’ marital satisfaction (N = 1,140)

(Table 2).

-.28***
Prediction of various demographic variables for moth-

-.02
10

ers’ marital satisfaction was also investigated. Among all

–

demographic variables, mothers’ education level and

-.24***
.32***

MS marital satisfaction, CA co-parenting alliance, FI satisfaction with father involvement, PS parenting stress, PSE parenting self-efficacy
household income were the only significant positive pre-
.02

dictors of mothers’ marital satisfaction (b = .07, p \ .05;

–
9

b = .16, p \ .001, respectively) while mothers’ age was a

significant negative predictor (b = -.07, p \ .05). The
-.48***
.38***
-.38***

other demographic variables, including number of chil-

.05

dren, years married, having full-time job, having domestic

–
8

helpers were insignificant predictors of mothers’ marital

satisfaction (Table 3).
.11***

-.13***
.39***

Hierarchical regression analysis showed that greater

.01

.00
–

co-parenting alliance, higher satisfaction with father

7

involvement, and lower parenting stress predicted higher

.19***
.13***

.10***
-.17***
.51***

maternal marital satisfaction (b = .34, p \ .001; b = .32,

-.10**

p \ .001; b = -.24, p \ .001, respectively). Parenting

–
6

self-efficacy was not a significant predictor in the model

(b = .01, p = .645). The model explained 55 % of the
.08**

variance in mothers’ marital satisfaction after controlling

-.01
.02
.02
.03

.02
-.03
–

for all demographic variables (F (11,1126) = 145.63,

5

p \ .001) (Table 3). Analyses showed that the level of

-.36***

-.13***

-.11***

multicollinearity within different parenting correlates was

.10**

.07**
-.06*
-.00

-.05

acceptable in the current study, with all variation inflation

–
4

factors (VIFs) ranging from 1.01 to 1.03.

-.33***
.30***

.09**
-.05*
-.05

-.02
.02
-.01
-.04

Discussion
–
3

Our results showed that mothers who reported greater

.55***
-.40***
.42***

.12***

.09**
-.05*

satisfaction with father behaviour had higher marital sat-

-.01
.03

-.03
-.01
–

isfaction, supporting Hypothesis 1 and the ‘‘spillover’’

2

hypothesis. This result corroborated previous research

* p \ .05; ** p \ .01; *** p \ .001
.69***
.66***
-.49***
.34***

.17***

.12***

findings. Mothers who were more satisfied with the

-.07*
-.04
.04

-.05
-.01

involvement of fathers were more likely to feel satisfied

–
1

with their marriage than mothers who were less satisfied

with father involvement (Mehall et al. 2009). Within a
7. Number of children

9. Employment status
8. Household income

11. Domestic helper

Chinese family, mother is responsible for housework and

10. Education level

12. Years married

childrearing duties, while father is the breadwinner and

takes care of the financial matters and all ‘‘outside issues’’
of the family (Hu 2011). When fathers engage more in
Variable

5. PSE
6. Age
1. MS
2. CA

childrearing activities, the burden on mothers will be

4. PS
3. FI

eased. Mothers will feel grateful and experience the love,

123
778 J Child Fam Stud (2015) 24:772–783

Table 3 Hierarchical regression analysis for the prediction of mothers’ marital satisfaction (N = 1,140)
Model B SE b F Adjusted R2 DR2

Step 1 6.62*** .03 .04***

Age -2.12 .99 -.07*
Number of children 1.53 1.84 .06
Household income 3.83 .85 .16***
Educational level 2.53 1.11 .07*
Employment status .27 1.16 .01
Years married .00 .69 .00
Domestic helper 1.35 1.53 .03
Step 2 145.63*** .58 .55***
Age -1.62 .65 -.06*
Number of children 1.63 .56 .06**
Household income 1.66 .56 .07**
Education level 1.34 .74 .04
Employment status .17 .76 .01
Years married -.07 .45 -.00
Domestic helper .89 1.00 .02
FI .23 .02 .32***
PS -.22 .02 -.24***
PSE .04 .09 .01
CA .52 .05 .34***
B unstandardised regression coefficient, SE standard error, b standardised regression coefficient, DR2 R square change, FI satisfaction with father
involvement, PS parenting stress, PSE parenting self-efficacy, CA co-parenting alliance
* p \ .05; ** p \ .01; *** p \ .001

concern and commitment of fathers if fathers are involved
in parenting besides taking up the breadwinner role. This
enhances mother’s marital satisfaction. As nuclear families
in Hong Kong, China, nowadays reside far away from their
original families and mothers lack support and assistance
from the extended families in childcare, father involvement
is attributed greater importance in modern families and
plays a crucial role in determining mothers’ marital satis-
faction. Indeed, father’s support is more important than
other sources of social support for maintaining a happy and
stable marriage (Feinberg 2003).
Greater co-parenting alliance was found to be associated
with higher maternal marital satisfaction; Hypothesis 2 is
thus supported. Co-parenting alliance is closely related to
marital satisfaction in Chinese families where family
integrity and family harmony is highly valued (Lam et al.
2012). This supports the ‘‘spillover’’ and similarity
hypotheses. Co-parenting alliance indicates co-operation
and mutual understanding that leads to shared experience,
hence martial satisfaction. On one hand, when mothers
perceive that their husbands share similar childrearing
values and work cooperatively in parenting, they will feel
the trust, emotional support and mutuality from fathers.
This strengthens family cohesion, and increases family
harmony. Consequently, marital satisfaction is increased.
On the other hand, Chinese couples with diverse values and
different parenting styles often trigger spousal conflict that
affects family harmony, which in turn spills over to lower
marital satisfaction (Lam et al. 2012). This corroborates
Feinberg’s (2003) multi-domain model of co-parenting
which stated that co-parenting affected the course of the
overall inter-parental relationship. This subsequently spilt
over to the spousal level and influenced their relationship
and marital satisfaction.
Our findings also suggested that stress arose from par-
enting had a negative association with marital satisfaction,
hence supporting Hypothesis 4 and the ‘‘spillover’’
hypothesis. As parenting stress of mothers elevated, their
marital satisfaction decreased. Again, this finding provided
supporting evidence to previous studies (Mulsow et al.
2002; Kersh et al. 2006). From the cultural perspective,
Chinese people are less willing to talk about their own
family issues as they believe that ‘‘family quarrels must be
settled behind closed doors’’ (‘‘jia chou bu chu wai zhuan’’)
and mothers should be mainly responsible for all parenting
issues. When Chinese mothers encounter parenting prob-
lems and experience parenting stress, they will not disclose
them to the outsiders due to the fear of losing ‘‘face’’
(Kwok and Wong 2000). Since they cannot express their
concern or seek support publicly, their spouses become

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J Child Fam Stud (2015) 24:772–783
their only support (Lam and Mackenzie 2002). They may
then increase the burden on their husbands by expressing
their negative feelings and grievances on them. In that case,
mothers’ parenting stress may affect fathers’ feelings and
behaviour. This, in turn, affects marital relationship in a
negative way (Lavee et al. 1996). From a family systems
perspective, stress from one family member will be passed
on to another member. Therefore, parenting stress of
mothers may be passed on to the fathers and make them
feel stressful as well. A study also showed that the stress
experienced by one spouse might cause psychological
distress and even depression in the other spouse (Moore
and Buehler 2011). This may thus lead to a strained rela-
tionship and jeopardise marital satisfaction.
In this study, mothers’ parenting self-efficacy was not a
significant predictor of marital satisfaction. Although we
found significant positive correlation between parenting
self-efficacy and marital satisfaction, the relationship was
rather weak. Thus, Hypothesis 3 was not supported. In
Chinese culture, mothers are expected to sacrifice them-
selves and be fully devoted to parenting in order to main-
tain a well-functioning family. Therefore, they perceive
competence in parenting as their duty and obligation (Ngai
et al. 2010). According to Porter and Hsu (2003), mothers’
perceptions of parenting efficacy might simply be a
‘‘reality check’’ regarding their own experience of success
and failure in parenting. Serving like an internal validation,
parenting self-efficacy is the belief that one is competent in
parenting. With regard to marital satisfaction, Chinese
people put more emphasis on external validation that
includes parenting involvement and co-operation from the
fathers. In other words, marital satisfaction is more related
to external validation rather than internal validation (Camp
and Ganong 1997). Therefore, mothers’ parenting self-
efficacy has little impact on their perception of marital
satisfaction.
With regard to the demographic variables, it was found
that both household income and mothers’ education level
were significant positive predictors of mothers’ marital
satisfaction whereas mothers’ age was a significant nega-
tive predictor. Household income may enhance marital
relationship in two ways. First, a family earning a large
income will have more resources and less financial prob-
lems. In that case, there may be fewer money-related
marital conflicts and thus a greater marital satisfaction in
the family (Dakin and Wampler 2008). Second, Chinese
people are quite sensitive to affluence. They are concerned
about their relative positions in the social stratum and about
comparisons with their peers or neighbours. Even when a
marriage is ‘‘empty’’ in terms of romantic interests or
emotional needs, mothers may still be satisfied given that
the marriage provides them with economic security (Kamo
1993). As for the education attainment of mothers,
779
education level of Chinese mothers significantly predicted
their marital satisfaction. According to Tang (1999),
mothers’ education attainment was an important socio-
economic factor influencing the distribution of marital
decision-making power in modern Chinese families. With a
symmetrical distribution of marital decision-making
power, Chinese mothers reported having fewer marital
conflicts, less marital aggression, and higher marital satis-
faction. Hence, mothers’ education attainment has an
indirect, but significant effect on marital satisfaction in
modern Chinese families. Regarding the effect of age on
marital satisfaction, young couples may have greater
marital satisfaction as they seem to have fewer marital
adjustment problems than middle-aged couples who have
to face their midlife-crisis (Jose and Alfons 2007).
The present study is important because it extends our
knowledge about the family systems theory on examining
the impact of parental subsystem on spousal subsystem,
especially when previous studies mainly focused on
examining the opposite direction. Results supported the
‘‘spillover’’ hypothesis. The positive association of these
parenting correlates and marital satisfaction revealed that
factors in the parenting domain would most likely ‘‘spill
over’’ and affect marital satisfaction. Moreover, these
findings serve as a counterargument against the ‘‘com-
pensatory’’ hypothesis which stated that parents who were
dissatisfied or unhappy in the parenting domain would seek
compensation in their marriage. This indeed corresponds
well with the Chinese culture. As childrearing is regarded
as mothers’ duty, Chinese mothers will attempt to solve
problems they may encounter in parenting rather than
avoiding them and seeking compensation in their marital
relationships. The fulfillment of the duty as a mother also
signifies the fulfillment of the duty as a wife in Chinese
families. Therefore, the fulfillment of mothers’ parental
role and responsibility contributes to marital satisfaction.
Successful parenting will enhance marital satisfaction
whilst poor parenting is likely to negatively affect marital
satisfaction. From a theoretical standpoint, the ‘‘spillover’’
and ‘‘compensatory’’ hypotheses are two competing and
contrasting processes as they each describe either similar-
ities or dissimilarities in characteristics of the dyadic
relationships (Yu and Gamble 2008). However, it is pos-
sible that both processes exist in the association between
parenting and marital relationships. For instance, the
‘‘compensatory’’ hypothesis may also explain the parent-
ing-marital relationship when a different set of parenting
variables are studied. Nevertheless, the findings in our
study provided support for the ‘‘spillover’’ effect of par-
enting on marital satisfaction. Some may argue that the
non-significant association of parenting self-efficacy and
marital satisfaction implied that mothers ‘‘compartmental-
ise’’ their parenting roles and marriage, keeping the
123
780
negativity within the parenting process from affecting their
marital relationships, as stated in the compartmentalisation
hypothesis (Krishnakumar and Buehler 2000). However,
this is very unlikely in collective Chinese families as
family members are highly interdependent (Chao and
Tseng 2002).
Since marital satisfaction is closely related to one’s
physical and mental health, as well as family functioning, it
is important to sustain marital satisfaction. In order to
increase mothers’ marital satisfaction, measures that cul-
tivate father involvement, alleviate mothers’ parenting
stress, and improve co-parenting alliance may be adopted.
To cultivate the actual involvement of fathers, the fol-
lowing measures are proposed: First, as most of the fathers
have full time employment, paternity leave and flexible
working hours may be implemented so that fathers have
more time to involve in child-rearing activities. This policy
has been implemented in Western countries like the United
Kingdom, United States, Czech Republic, and Austria.
Paternity leave is found to be effective in increasing long-
term father involvement in parenting (Rege and Solli
2010). Second, educational and support programmes may
be conducted by counsellors in children and youth centres,
and family services centres to remind fathers of the
importance of their involvement in parenting and to
emphasise their roles in children’s development. The Early
Head Start Programs in the United States is a good example
(Raikes et al. 2002). Third, counsellors may organise
workshops and family activities to encourage fathers’
participation and further equip fathers with parenting
knowledge and skills (Caldwell et al. 2010). Fourth,
intervention programmes aiming to enhance the quality of
father–child interaction and increase father involvement
with their children may also be carried out to specifically
train first-time fathers during the transition to parenthood
(Doherty et al. 2006).
To relieve parenting stress, counsellors may deliver
parenting workshops that specifically target stress man-
agement (Keen et al. 2010). Besides, a social support
network that involves other mothers who are facing or have
overcome similar parenting challenges may be built to
provide support and a reference that helps reduce parenting
stress (Mulsow et al. 2002). Babysitting or afterschool care
projects can also be launched to alleviate the mothers’
stress in caregiving.
To encourage co-parenting alliance, workshops pro-
moting mutual communication and understanding between
spouses on parenting issues may be held by counsellors
(Feinberg and Kan 2008). Through these workshops,
spouses can learn to develop common goals so that mutual
trust and consensus can be reached on various parenting
issues, beliefs, and values. Additionally, family-based
intervention targeting on communication, problem-solving,
123
J Child Fam Stud (2015) 24:772–783
and conflict management skills may be provided to spouses
so as to reduce parenting-related marital conflicts, promote
co-parenting alliance, and thereby improving marital
quality and satisfaction (Yilmaz and Kalkan 2010).
There are several limitations to the present study. First, this
study relied solely on mothers’ self-reports to examine the
relationships of different parenting variables and marital sat-
isfaction. In order to improve the reliability of the data,
fathers’ report of their marital satisfaction, co-parenting alli-
ance, and some kind of clinical observations (e.g. evaluating
couples’ dialogue quality) can be added when conducting
similar studies in the future. Second, the design of the study is
cross-sectional, which cannot show a causal relationship
between the independent and dependent variables. As indi-
cated in previous studies, martial satisfaction may predict
parenting variables such as parenting self-efficacy and father
involvement (Merrifield 2010; Mehall et al. 2009). Hence, a
longitudinal design can be used in future studies. Third, con-
venience sampling was adopted in the present study, so the
results cannot be generalized to the mothers’ population at
large. If feasible, stratified random sampling may be
employed in future studies. Finally, some parenting variables
other than those discussed in this study may also predict or
affect marital satisfaction of Chinese mothers. Parent–child
co-regulation, for example, was found to impact both the
parent and the child, especially during the early childhood
years. Co-regulation refers to the the way in which caregiver
and infant actively co-construct, maintain, and organise
positive affective states in the context of social interactions
(Feldman 2003). Parent–child co-regulation is crucial to the
later development of self-regulation in children and contrib-
utes to lower level of child externalising behaviour problems
after the transition to kindergarten (Lunkenheimer et al. 2011).
Compared to its impact on the child, relatively little is known
about the influence of co-regulation on parents. Distress
occurs from poor parent–child co-regulation may carry over
into the marital relationship and detrimentally affect marital
quality. Future research can explore the impact of this factor
on marital satisfaction.
Acknowledgments Funding support was provided by the Strategic
Research Grant from the City University of Hong Kong.
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