Domestic and overseas research suggests that marriage satisfaction has an upside-down U-shaped relationship with the family life cycle: amid the hustle and bustle of child rearing, couples often experience great stress in their relationships, but marriage satisfaction gradually climbs afterwards. Yet once the nest is emptied, satisfaction heads downward again. The infamous "silver divorce" phenomenon in Japan is a manifestation of this kind of psychology.
國內外多項研究也發現，「家庭生命週期」和「婚姻滿意度」是有著 U 型對應關係的：在手忙腳亂的育兒初期，夫妻間往往處於緊張狀態，之後婚姻滿意度逐漸上升；然而一旦進入空巢期，滿意度卻再次「直線下降」──日本著名的「熟年離婚」現象即是這種心理的反映。