Family Facts: Social Science Research on Family, Society & Religion
Top Ten Findings
Lasting Love: What Influences the Quality and Stability of Marriage?
February 2008
1. Religious attendance. Wives who weekly attend religious services with their husbands report, on average, greater marital happiness. Wives who attended religious services weekly with their husbands reported higher levels of marital happiness than peers in marriages in which neither the wife nor the husband attended services weekly.
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2. Commitment to marriage. Wives who share with their husbands a strong commitment to the institution of marriage report, on average, greater marital satisfaction. Wives in marriages in which both spouses had a strong commitment to the institution of marriage reported, on average, higher levels of marital satisfaction than peers in marriages in which neither the wife or husband felt committed to the institution of marriage.
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3. Parenthood. The marital quality of older married couples with children tends to be more stable than peers without children. Older respondents began the study with higher marital quality than younger respondents. Over time, parenthood status among older married couples appeared to be associated with the quality of their marriages, in such a way that those with adult children who lived away from them reported relatively stable marital quality, while older married couples without children tended to experience significant declines in marital quality over a period of eight years.
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4. Leisure time. New parents who spent more leisure time together before the birth of their child tend to report a greater sense of closeness and belonging to one another during the first year of parenthood. New parents who spent more leisure time with each other before their child’s birth reported higher levels of ”feeling close” to their spouses or “belonging to” their spouses one year after the birth of their first child.
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5. Premarital education. Spouses who received premarital education services appear to be more satisfied with and committed to their marriages. Individuals who received premarital education reported, on average, higher levels of satisfaction with their marriage, less conflict with their spouses, and more commitment to their marriages than peers who did not receive premarital education.
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6. Intact family. Marriages in which both spouses come from intact families tend to be the most enduring. Compared to marriages in which neither spouse experienced parental divorce while growing up, marriages in which one spouse experienced a parental divorce were nearly twice as likely to end in divorce. Marriages in which both spouses experienced a parental divorce were more than three times as likely to end in divorce as marriages in which neither spouse experienced parental divorce.
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7. Cohabitation. Individuals who cohabited prior to marriage report, on average, lower levels of marital happiness. Respondents who cohabited prior to marriage tended to report lower levels of marital happiness and higher levels of marital conflict than individuals who did not cohabit prior to marriage, even when controlling for gender, marital duration, age, parental divorce, marriage order, education attainment, family income and recent welfare aid receipt.
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8. Cohabitation. Cohabitation prior to marriage is associated with greater likelihood of divorce. Compared to women who had not cohabited prior to their first marriages, those who cohabited with the men they married were more likely to divorce. (Premarital cohabitation was associated with 29 percent increase in the likelihood of divorce). Those who had cohabited with at least two partners were even more likely to divorce. (Premarital cohabitation with two or more partners was associated with an 86 percent increase in the likelihood of divorce). The effect cohabiting with two or more partners on the likelihood of divorce was 44 percent greater than the effect of cohabiting only with their eventual husbands.
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9. Perceived marital instability. Individuals who perceive their marriages to be less stable are more likely to divorce eventually. Married individuals who perceived their marriages to be less stable (for example, those who felt that their marriage was in trouble or thought about divorce) were more likely to become divorced within a 14-year period. (A one standard deviation increase in the “divorce proneness” scale predicted an 83-percent increase in the odds of divorce.)
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10. Divorce. Divorce may adversely impact the quality of a subsequent marriage. Although previously divorced individuals tended to initially report higher levels of positive marital experience and lower levels of negative marital experience in their subsequent marriages, they later experienced a decrease in positive qualities and an increase in negative marital experience at rates that accelerated over time.
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Resources
Events:Religious Practice and Civic Life: What the Research Says October 4, 2007 |