ABSTRACT
Objective To explore the difference of social support,self-esteem and marital quality between urban and rural areas and discuss the impact on each other.Methods Chinese marital quality questionnaire,selfesteem scale (SES) and social support rating scale were used to test 386 urban and rural married residents.Results ①The results of descriptive statistics showed that marriage quality,social support and self-esteem of urban and rural residents were (318.46±37.41),(42.44±5.84) and (30.65 ± 3.95) respectively.②There was no significant difference among social support,self-esteem and marital quality in different gender(t =0.41,-0.16,0.03,P＞ 0.05),but had significant difference between urban and rural areas(t=2.83,3.91,5.24,P＜0.01).There were significant differences between social support and marital quality in different age structures(t=5.22,3.85,P＜0.05).There were significant differences between social support and self-esteem in different educational level (t =3.48,4.16,P＜0.01).③Social support,subjective support,objective support and marital quality had positive correlation (r=0.114～0.394,P＜0.05).The degree and character compatibility,communication between couples,resolve conflicts are positively related to support (r=0.308～ 0.476,P＜0.01).④Stepwise multiple regression analysis and structural equation modeling analysis showed that self-esteem played partial intermediary role between social support and marital quality(37.7％),which could explain 26.8％ of marital quality.The social suptort and self-esteem could better predict marital quality.Conclusion The higher social support and self-esteem are,the higher marital quality is.Social support can directly affect the marital quality and indirectly affect marital quality through self-esteem.