The Effect of Financial Well-being on Marital Satisfaction among

Young Married Couples in Malaysia

ZURAIDAH ZAINOL, SUZYANTY MOHD SHOKORY,

NADRATUN NAFISAH ABDUL WAHAB

Faculty of Management & Economics,

Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris,

MALAYSIA

Abstract: - This study determines the level of financial well-being and marital satisfaction of young married

couples in Malaysia and examines the effect of financial well-being on marital satisfaction. This study

employed a quantitative approach. Data were collected from a sample of 250 young married individuals, aged

20 to 40 years old with a marriage age of 1 to 10 years, using a self-administered questionnaire. Data were

analyzed using descriptive analysis and Simple Linear Regression. The findings reveal a significant positive

effect of financial well-being on marital satisfaction. In conclusion, a favourable perception of financial well-

being among young married individuals is more likely to increase their marital satisfaction. Thus, the findings

propose guidance to tackle financial problems and provide fresh insights to the relevant parties in exploring the

plausible solution to overcome financial and divorce problems among young married couples and promote

family harmonization.

Key-Words: - financial well-being, marital satisfaction, young married couples

1 Introduction

Through the launch of Shared Prosperity Vision

2030 and “Keluarga Malaysia” (Malaysian

Family), Malaysia aims to build a sustainable

economy without compromising the well-being of

the nation, [1]. Hence, policies and strategies

were put forward to restructure the priorities of

socio-economic development to ensure that the

bond among Malaysian is strengthened and the

wealth and prosperity generated can be enjoyed

equally and equitably by all citizens. To realize

such aspirations, the key is to ensure family

harmony. However, based on the recent data

issued by the Department of Statistics, Malaysia,

[2], the high number of divorces among

Malaysian couples has sparked worrisome that

could distract the achievement of the nation's

aspirations. Hence, the alarming rate calls for

inevitable investigation into the root cause that

could help in reducing the divorce rate and

consequently foster marriage sustainability and

family harmonization, [3]. Given marital

satisfaction has been recognized as the true

reflection of marriage happiness and the

foundation for family harmonization, [4], in this

study, it is argued that marital satisfaction is the

best factor to impede divorces. Thus, this study

seeks to examine the level of marital satisfaction

among young couples, which were reported to be

more likely to divorce compared to their older

couples.

Financial issues have been highlighted as the

major contributing factor to most divorces, [5]. In

Malaysia, financial issues have been revealed as the

primary cause of over half of all divorces, [6]. Thus,

it is argued that financial issues are critical to be

researched to understand marital satisfaction,

particularly among early married couples, most of

them have not yet been in a strong financial position

to fulfill family financial obligations, [7]. Believing

that escaping from monetary conflict and economic

hardship by achieving strong financial well-being is

crucial to the married couple to ensure marital

satisfaction, [8], [9], and strengthen family

institutions, this study also examines the level of

financial well-being among young couples as well

as the effect of financial well-being on marital

satisfaction.

2 Literature Review

Marital satisfaction refers to individuals’

perceptions of the pros and cons of marriage.

According to a prior study, financial aspects such

as financial issues and financial management

perceptions can help to explain marital

Received: February 18, 2023. Revised: June 15, 2023. Accepted: June 25, 2023. Published: July 7, 2023.

WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on BUSINESS and ECONOMICS

DOI: 10.37394/23207.2023.20.131

Zuraidah Zainol, Suzyanty Mohd Shokory,

Nadratun Nafisah Abdul Wahab

E-ISSN: 2224-2899

1492

Volume 20, 2023

satisfaction, [10]. Although has been asserted the

association between financial matters and marital

issues, little research has highlighted the extent

couple's perception of financial well-being

affects marital relationships, specifically marital

satisfaction, [11]. Similarly, limited studies have

embarked on the consequences of financial well-

being, [12].

Reviewing past studies, it could be identified

that lower marital satisfaction is significantly

determined by financial problems. In particular,

[13], indicated that financial satisfaction and

relationship satisfaction are strongly correlated.

Moreover, conflicts about finances in a marriage

would harm marital satisfaction, but financial

satisfaction is a major contributor to relationship

satisfaction, [14]. It is also highlighted that life

satisfaction among older individuals is significantly

influenced by perceived financial well-being, [15].

In a recent study, it was also demonstrated that

marital satisfaction is influenced by the couple’s

overall financial well-being, [11]. Accordingly, it

could be indicated that couples who successfully

deal with financial problems are more likely to be

satisfied with their marital relationship. Therefore,

the following hypothesis is proposed:

H1: Financial well-being significantly and

positively affects marital satisfaction.

The proposed Conceptual Framework is

presented in Figure 1.

Fig 1: Proposed Conceptual Framework

3 Methodology

This study employed positivism, quantitative and

deductive approaches. The sample comprised

married individuals, aged 20 to 40 years old with a

marriage age between 1 to 10 years, The sample was

chosen using probability sampling techniques,

specifically the systematic street-intercept method,

[16]. The appropriate sample size for this study was

chosen to be 300 respondents after taking both the

quantitative and qualitative factors into account,

[17]. A self-administered questionnaire was

employed as a data collection instrument. The

questionnaire was divided into two parts: Part A

consisted of questions on the respondent's

information, while Part B comprised questions

that measure both financial well-being and

marital satisfaction. Specifically, the items to

measure the constructs were all modified from

past studies. In particular, 18 items that were

used to measure financial well-being were

adapted from several sources including, [18],

[19], [20], [21], while 15 items that measure

marital satisfaction were adapted from, [22].

The pilot study was performed to assess the

questionnaire’s validity and reliability. It involved

two groups of respondents i.e., two experts and 100

potential respondents, [23], [24]. Specifically, the

experts examined the appropriateness of the items

selected to measure the constructs before the

questionnaire was pilot tested with 100 respondents,

in which the data collected were used to run the

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Cronbach’s

Alpha was performed. The results of the EFA

results showed a Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) value

of 0.894 and Bartlett’s test gave signiﬁcance at

0.000, (< 0.05), conﬁrming that the suitability of

data for conducting EFA, [25], [26]. A two-factor

solution was produced, which accounted for 53.25

percent of the total variance with all items loaded

above 0.5 on the corresponding factor, except d14.

The item with low loading was deleted.

Furthermore, all Cronbach’s alpha values of

financial well-being and marital satisfaction were

0.955 and 0.915, respectively, implying good

internal consistency as the values were above the

threshold of 0.70, [17].

To ensure ethical research conduct, this study

adopted several measures including voluntary

participation, anonymity, and confidentiality, [23],

[27], [28], in the actual data collection. In addition,

approval from the Human Research Ethics

Committee was sought to ensure all the procedures

followed in collecting the data would eliminate or at

least minimize the risks to humans participating in

research. The approval was received with reference

2021-0398-01.

The data were collected at the selected

shopping malls in Peninsular Malaysia from July

2022 to December 2022 using systematic street

intercept. Data were analysed using descriptive

analysis and simple linear regression. In particular,

descriptive analysis was performed to describe the

respondent's profile, while Simple Linear

Regression was conducted to test the hypothesized

relationship.

WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on BUSINESS and ECONOMICS

DOI: 10.37394/23207.2023.20.131

Zuraidah Zainol, Suzyanty Mohd Shokory,

Nadratun Nafisah Abdul Wahab

E-ISSN: 2224-2899

1493

Volume 20, 2023

4 Findings

4.1 Profile of the Respondents

A total of 250 questionnaires were distributed to

a sample of 250 married individuals. Despite 250

responses were gathered, 19 responses with more

than 10% of missing values on items measuring

both financial well-being (FWB) and marital

satisfaction (MS), 15 responses with a similar

answer to all the questions, and 22 responses

which the respondents did not fit the criteria

(aged 20 to 40 years old with a marriage age

between 1 to 10 years) were removed. Thus, a total

of 56 were omitted, leaving 194 responses for

further analysis, producing a response rate of

64.67 percent. Most of the respondents were

female (69.6%), in the age range of 36 to 40

years old (36.6%), possess a bachelor’s degree

(41.2%), and have been married for around seven

to eight years. The majority of the respondents

are Malay (88.7%) and Muslim (90.7%). Most of

the respondents reported that they work in the

public sector (45.4%) and reported a monthly

income of RM2000 to RM3000 (21.1%). Table 1

summarizes the demographic profile of the

respondents.

Table 1. Respondents’ Profile

4.2 Testing the Assumptions

Normality and outliers’ assumptions were

checked before running a Simple Linear

Regression analysis. An examination of the

values of skewness and kurtosis depicted in Table

2, shows that all measures are within the

acceptable range of normality, that is between ±2,

[29]. Based on the Mahalanobis distance values,

three cases considered outliers were deleted, [30].

Table 2. Skewness and Kurtosis Results

4.3 Descriptive Analysis

The first objective is to determine the level of

financial well-being and marital satisfaction.

Based on Table 3, the results show that the

perceived financial well-being among

respondents is at a moderate level but slightly

high for marital satisfaction.

Table 3. Results of Descriptive Analysis

4.4 Simple Linear Regression Analysis

To test the hypothesized relationship pertaining

to the effect of financial well-being (FWB) on

marital satisfaction (MS), Simple Linear

Regression is used to run the analysis. As

depicted in Table 3, the R2 showed a value of

0.029, implying that 2.9 percent of the variation

in marital satisfaction can be explained by

financial well-being. The p-value shows a value

of 0.019, which is less than the alpha value of

0.05, indicating that the effect of financial well-

being on marital satisfaction is significant.

Further, the standardized beta shows a value of

0.17, indicating the positive effect of financial

WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on BUSINESS and ECONOMICS

DOI: 10.37394/23207.2023.20.131

Zuraidah Zainol, Suzyanty Mohd Shokory,

Nadratun Nafisah Abdul Wahab

E-ISSN: 2224-2899

1494

Volume 20, 2023

well-being on marital satisfaction. Hence, the

greater the financial well-being perceived by

young married couples, the greater their marital

satisfaction will be. Thus, the hypothesis that

financial well-being (FWB) significantly affects

marital satisfaction (MS) is supported.

Table 4. Results of Simple Linear Regression

0.170a

0.029

Adjusted R2

0.024

F value (p=0.019)

5.612

Model H1: FWB - MS

Standardized βeta

0.170

T value

2.369

P value

0.019

Decision

Supported

5 Discussion

As Malaysia emphasized the harmony of the

“Malaysian Family” to achieve a sustainable

economy as outlined in the Shared Prosperity

Vision 2030, it calls for new research to provide

insights into marital satisfaction. Since financial

problems have been regarded as the play factors

that contribute to the failure of a marriage, this

study seeks to investigate the role of financial

well-being in affecting marital satisfaction. The

findings reveal the significant positive effect of

financial well-being on marital satisfaction. The

findings support past studies that financial well-

being increases marital satisfaction, [11], [13,

[15]. That is, whenever individuals feel secure

financially, they are more likely to be satisfied

with their marital relationship. In other words,

the findings support that the tensions over money

and spending may weaken marital satisfaction

and family harmony, [14]. Thus, to ensure the

harmonization and strength of the “Malaysian

family”, the perceived financial well-being

should be improved, and related issues of

spending must be well-addressed. The findings

enrich the current literature on financial well-

being and marital satisfaction. The findings

emphasize that consumers' financial well-being

should be prioritized to elevate and empower

family harmony, particularly among young

married couples. Having this information at hand,

young married couples can strategize their

financial well-being, such as by dealing with

financial problems to avoid divorce and increase

marital satisfaction. Further, the findings provide

useful insights to the policymakers to explore the

plausible solution on the right lever to overcome

financial and marital problems, and the

universities to plan and design training modules

and workshops to educate young married couples

on ways to empower the family and socio-

economic well-being of the family as envisaged

in the recent blueprint of Shared Prosperity

Vision 2030. While the findings of this study

reveal salient contributions, there are some

limitations to consider before generalization.

First, this study only sampled 250 young married

individuals from Malaysia. Though the sample

and the size are appropriate for empirical

research, to improve the explanatory power of the

framework, replication of this research in other

countries and with a larger sample size is much

preferred. Second, this study investigated

financial well-being as the only predictor of

marital satisfaction and a direct relationship.

Hence, future research may examine the other

variables that may influence marital satisfaction

such as spending and saving habits in the

framework, and test the existence of mediators

and moderators in the relationship.

Acknowledgment:

This research was funded through Fundamental

Research Grant Scheme: 2020-0233-106-02

(FRGS/1/2020/SS01/UPSI/02/7) by the Ministry

of Higher Education Malaysia.

References:

[1] TheStar, "Malaysian Family: ‘Key Happiness

Outcome’ introduced to monitor the

satisfaction of people, says PM," TheStar.

[Online]. Available:

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/202

1/10/02/malaysian-family-key-happiness-

outcome-introduced-to-monitor-satisfaction-

of-people-says-pm

[2] Department of Statistics Malaysia, "Marriage

and Divorce Statistics, Malaysia 2018."

[Online]. Available:

https://www.dosm.gov.my/v1/index.php?r=co

lumn/cthemeByCat&cat=453&bul_id=ZFAz

VjE1Ny93VlZXenloWXJBQmYyUT09&men

u_id=L0pheU43NWJwRWVSZklWdzQ4Tlh

UUT09

[3] L. Zakariyah and S. N. Sapardi @ Saparti,

"High rate divorce among Muslims in

Malaysia: a study of legal reconciliation and

Islamic matrimonial dispute remedy,"

presented at the International Conference on

Religion, Culture and Governance in the

WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on BUSINESS and ECONOMICS

DOI: 10.37394/23207.2023.20.131

Zuraidah Zainol, Suzyanty Mohd Shokory,

Nadratun Nafisah Abdul Wahab

E-ISSN: 2224-2899

1495

Volume 20, 2023

Contemporary World (ICRCG 2018), Kuala

Lumpur, 3rd-4th October 2018, 2018.

[4] F. Fahimdanesh, A. Noferesti, and K.

Tavakol, "Self-Compassion and Forgiveness:

Major Predictors of Marital Satisfaction in

Young Couples," The American Journal of

Family Therapy, vol. 48, no. 3, p.221-234,

2020/05/26 2020,

DOI: 10.1080/01926187.2019.1708832.

[5] A. Yeo, "Strengthening Family Ties Could

Help to Reduce the Divorce Rate,"

BERNAMA Thoughts. [Online]. Available:

https://www.bernama.com/en/thoughts/news.p

hp?id=2015708

[6] B. N. Jay, "Financial issues biggest cause of

divorce in Malaysia," in New Straits Times,

ed. Kuala Lumpur: New Straits Times Press

(M) Bhd, May 25, 2019.

[7] A. R. Ridzuan, S. N. S. Alam, A. R. Ridzuan,

N. M. Nazri, M. H. T. Abdullah, and I. Ismail,

"Factors of Disapproving of Early Marriage in

Malaysia," International Journal of Academic

Research in Business and Social Sciences,

Vol. 8, No.10, p.915-926, 2018.

[8] F. A. Ismail, S. K. AbManan, R. Saidon, N.

H. Sahari, A. AbdAziz, and N. Jaapar,

"Sustaining The Well-Being of Family With

Working Spouse: Income Sharing

Dimension," Journal of Contemporary

Islamic Studies, Vol.4, No.1, p.1-16, 2018.

[9] J. P. Sawai, R. Juhari, R. Kahar, Z. Ismail, and

R. P. Sawai, "Financial strain, financial

management practices, marital satisfaction

and marital stability among newlyweds,"

Management and Accounting Review, 2018.

[10] B. C. Kerkmann, T. R. Lee, J. M. Lown, and

S. M. Allgood, "Financial management,

financial problems and marital satisfaction

among recently married university students,"

Journal of Financial Counseling and

Planning, Vol. 11, No.2, p.55, 2000.

[11] A. Y. M. Shakir, D. A. Aziz, and S.

Carmergam, "Financial well-being,

mindfulness and marital duration as predictors

of relationship satisfaction among married

couples in Malaysia," Polish Psychological

Bulletin, p.322-326-322-326, 2021.

[12] A. P. Nanda and R. Banerjee, "Consumer’s

subjective financial well-being: A systematic

review and research agenda," International

Journal of Consumer Studies, Vol. 45, No.4,

p.750-776, 2021.

[13] J. E. Grable, S. Britt, and J. Cantrell, "An

exploratory study of the role financial

satisfaction has on the thought of subsequent

divorce," Family and Consumer Sciences

Research Journal, Vol. 36, No.2, p.130-150,

2007.

[14] K. L. Archuleta, "Couples, money, and

expectations: Negotiating financial

management roles to increase relationship

satisfaction," Marriage & Family Review,

Vol. 49, No. 5, p.391-411, 2013.

[15] J. Yeo and Y. G. Lee, "Understanding the

Association Between Perceived Financial

Well-Being and Life Satisfaction Among

Older Adults: Does Social Capital Play a

Role?," Journal of Family and Economic

Issues, Vol. 40, No.4, p.592-608, 2019/12/01

2019, DOI: 10.1007/s10834-019-09634-2.

[16] W. M. K. Trochim, "Research Methods

Knowledge Base." [Online]. Available:

http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/inde

x.php

[17] J. F. Hair, W. C. Black, B. J. Babin, and R. E.

Anderson, Multivariate Data Analysis: A

global perspective, 7th edition ed. Upper

Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education

Inc., 2010.

[18] S. Chan, S. Omar, and W. Yong, "Financial

well-being among Malaysian manufacturing

employees," Management Science Letters,

Vol. 8, No.6, p.691-698, 2018.

[19] M. J. Sirgy, G. B. Yu, D.-J. Lee, and M.

Bosnjak, "The effect of shopping satisfaction

during leisure travel on satisfaction with life

overall: The mitigating role of financial

concerns," Journal of Travel Research, Vol.

60, No.3, p.639-655, 2021, DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287520933688.

[20] C. Strömbäck, T. Lind, K. Skagerlund, D.

Västfjäll, and G. Tinghög, "Does self-control

predict financial behavior and financial well-

being?," Journal of Behavioral and

Experimental Finance, Vol. 14, Issue: June

2017, p.30-38, 2017.

[21] The Credit Counselling and Debt

Management Agency (AKPK), Financial

Behaviour And State of Financial Well-Being

of Malaysian Working Adults (AKPK

Financial Behaviour Survey 2018). Kuala

Lumpur: Agensi Kaunseling dan Pengurusan

Kredit, 2018.

[22] B. J. Fowers and D. H. Olson, "ENRICH

Marital Satisfaction Scale: A brief research

and clinical tool," Journal of Family

Psychology, Vol. 7, No. 2, p.176, 1993.

[23] M. Saunders, P. Lewis, and A. Thornhill,

Research methods for business students, 5th

WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on BUSINESS and ECONOMICS

DOI: 10.37394/23207.2023.20.131

Zuraidah Zainol, Suzyanty Mohd Shokory,

Nadratun Nafisah Abdul Wahab

E-ISSN: 2224-2899

1496

Volume 20, 2023

edition ed. Essex: Pearson Education Limited,

2009.

[24] G. Darusalam and S. Hussin, Metodologi

penyelidikan dalam pendidikan (Research

Methodology in Education). Kuala Lumpur:

Universiti Malaya, 2016.

[25] Z. Zainol, N. M. Yasin, N. A. Omar, and N.

M. H. N. Hashim, "Determining the Key

Factors of Customer-Brand Relationship

Investments’ Dimensions: Insights from

Malaysian Mobile Phone User," Journal of

Relationship Marketing, Vol. 13, No.4, p. 1-

25, 2014,

DOI: 10.1080/15332667.2014.965649.

[26] J. Pallant, SPSS survival manual: a step guide

to data analysis using SPSS 6th edition.

Australia: Publish Allen & Unwin, 2015.

[27] U. Sekaran and R. Bougie, Research Methods

for Business: A Skill Building Approach, 5th

edition ed. West Sussex, UK: John Wiley &

Sons Ltd, 2009, p.468.

[28] A. Bhattacherjee, Social Science Research:

Principles, Methods, And Practices, 2nd

edition ed. (The Global Text Project ). Zurich,

Switzerland: Creative Commons Attribution,

2012.

[29] G. D. Garson, Testing Statistical Assumptions

(Blue Book Series). Asheboro, NC USA:

Statistical Associates Publishing, 2012, p.53.

[30] S. Gao, P. L. Mokhtarian, and R. A. Johnston,

"Nonnormality of data in structural equation

models," Transportation Research Record:

Journal of the Transportation Research

Board, Vol. 2082, No.1, p.116-124, 2008.

Contribution of Individual Authors to the

Creation of a Scientific Article (Ghostwriting

Policy)

-Zuraidah Zainol did the introduction, literature

review, research framework and revision of the

manuscript.

-Suzyanty Mohd Shokory and Nadratun Nafisah

Abdul Wahab collected the data and prepared the

manuscript for publication.

-Zuraidah Zainol and Suzyanty Mohd Shokory

analysed the data.

Sources of Funding for Research Presented in a

Scientific Article or Scientific Article Itself

This research was funded through Fundamental

Research Grant Scheme: 2020-0233-106-02

(FRGS/1/2020/SS01/UPSI/02/7) by the Ministry

of Higher Education Malaysia.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare

that are relevant to the content of this article.

Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0

(Attribution 4.0 International, CC BY 4.0)

This article is published under the terms of the

Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en

_US

WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on BUSINESS and ECONOMICS

DOI: 10.37394/23207.2023.20.131

Zuraidah Zainol, Suzyanty Mohd Shokory,

Nadratun Nafisah Abdul Wahab

E-ISSN: 2224-2899

1497

Volume 20, 2023