Chinese men, especially those over the age of 50, are more satisfied with their marriages than their female counterparts, according to a fresh report.

Launched in Beijing on Thursday, the Blue Book of Social Mentality analyzed the impact of gender, age, place of resident, socio-economic factors as well as individual values including family and materialistic values on marriage satisfaction.

The annual report, conducted by the Institute of Sociology under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, consists of general and special reports, and analyses on the social attitudes and the needs for a good life. The report concluded that a person's social and economic status and emphasis on family values contributed positively to a satisfactory marriage life while the pursuit of material goods negatively affected it.

People living in first-tier cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen were the least happy in their marriage life.

The findings went viral on Chinese social media, sparking a gender spat.

Female internet users accused men of mostly being absent from the family life and not helping with household chores or taking care of the children while wives go out to make money on top of cooking, cleaning and baby-sitting at home.

Such "widowed parenting," as pointed out by netizen @Woshinijiaxiaofeixia, is "what most Chinese families are experiencing these days" and so women being less satisfied with their marriages is not unfathomable.

Another netizen @Yemangtianpindiandianzhang said she, too, would be satisfied with being taken care of after marriage both financially and physically.

On the other hand, some explained that the disparity in marital happiness can be related to men generally being less demanding in marriage and thus easier to feel content.

"Men's happiness just comes more easily," claimed netizen @Dongguadawanzi.

An online poll by China News surveyed whether people were satisfied in their marriages.

Out of the 192,000 participants, the number of people who said they were very happy with their marriage was similar to those who had been thinking of divorce – both around 15,000. The largest share of respondents, 136,000 people, were actually unmarried.

For the past five years, the marriage rate in China has steadily dropped from 9.9 to 7.2 per 1,000 people, according to the National Bureau of Statistics and the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Lu Jiehua, professor of sociology at Peking University, said that the attitude towards marriage and having a child was changing among those born in the 1980s or 1990s in China. Many choose not to tie the knot or are fine with getting married at a much older age.

However, even though Chinese women showed less satisfaction with their marriage, they do appear to be mentally healthier than men, particularly in relation to adjustment to environment, personal growth, positive relationship and personal goal. With marriage now losing its importance, Chinese women are paying more attention to self-development and have a clearer goal in life.

The study also discovered that the post-90s generation was acting most positive, while those born during the 1970s or 1980s scored high on negative attitudes. Location wise, China's northeast region presents better psychological health conditions.