Happy Marriages Still Common, Study Says
Research Finds Certain Features Of Marriages Changing
POSTED: 3:18 p.m. EDT June 5, 2003
Many older people will tell you that things aren't the way they used to be.
But despite major economic and social changes in the last 20 years, one thing hasn't changed: the overall quality of marriage in the United States, according to Penn State researchers.
"People are as happily married now as they were 20 years ago, but they also are just as divorce prone," said Alan Booth, professor of sociology, human development and family studies and demography. "While we identified a number of specific positive and negative features in marital quality, they balance off, resulting in little major change."
Booth and his team studied two national studies of married individuals, one collected in 1980 and the other in 2000. Results of their research are published in a recent issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family.
The researchers examined three key indicators of marital quality: marital happiness, marital interaction, and divorce proneness.
"There were no major changes in marital happiness and divorce proneness, but we found a slight decline in marital interaction," Booth said. "And, there have been a number of important specific changes over the 20-year period."
One feature was what he describes as "a remarkable change" in the distribution of power, or how equal the partners are in terms of influencing family decisions.
For men, there has been an increased amount of housework that has made women happy and men somewhat unhappy. But Booth said that, according to his research, men's displeasure with doing housework will wear off in the years to come.
"It is not a long-term problem," he said.
There was also an increase in the extent to which people marry individuals different from themselves in terms of age and race. Although these marriages can be successful, these differences increase the likelihood that couples will encounter problems that result in declines in marital happiness and interaction, the researchers said.
Cohabitation before marriage, the researchers said, also appears to have negative effects on marital quality. People who live together before marriage are different in certain ways from people who marry without having lived together. But even taking these differences into account, people who live together before marriage tend to be less happy with their marriages and more prone to divorce, Booth said.
Booth speculated that martial interaction has declined mostly because of America's employment environment, with more work being done 24-7. Spouses may be working different shifts and are not together as much. The opportunity to do things together is reduced and this can create problems for the relationship, he said.
Booth said the study showed that more people believe that marriage should be a lifelong arrangement, which has a positive effect on marital quality.
"We went through a period in this country, and perhaps are still in it, where more people thought about how the relationship is helping them fulfill their need and not about how to improve the marriage and what they can do to increase their spouse's fulfillment," he added. "Some scholars think we are still going through that period. But it may be fading. The fact that more people are committed to lifelong marriage may indicate it's no longer the case."
"People are as happily married now as they were 20 years ago, but they also are just as divorce prone," said Alan Booth, professor of sociology, human development and family studies and demography. "While we identified a number of specific positive and negative features in marital quality, they balance off, resulting in little major change."
Booth and his team studied two national studies of married individuals, one collected in 1980 and the other in 2000. Results of their research are published in a recent issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family.
The researchers examined three key indicators of marital quality: marital happiness, marital interaction, and divorce proneness.
"There were no major changes in marital happiness and divorce proneness, but we found a slight decline in marital interaction," Booth said. "And, there have been a number of important specific changes over the 20-year period."
One feature was what he describes as "a remarkable change" in the distribution of power, or how equal the partners are in terms of influencing family decisions.
For men, there has been an increased amount of housework that has made women happy and men somewhat unhappy. But Booth said that, according to his research, men's displeasure with doing housework will wear off in the years to come.
"It is not a long-term problem," he said.
There was also an increase in the extent to which people marry individuals different from themselves in terms of age and race. Although these marriages can be successful, these differences increase the likelihood that couples will encounter problems that result in declines in marital happiness and interaction, the researchers said.
Cohabitation before marriage, the researchers said, also appears to have negative effects on marital quality. People who live together before marriage are different in certain ways from people who marry without having lived together. But even taking these differences into account, people who live together before marriage tend to be less happy with their marriages and more prone to divorce, Booth said.
Booth speculated that martial interaction has declined mostly because of America's employment environment, with more work being done 24-7. Spouses may be working different shifts and are not together as much. The opportunity to do things together is reduced and this can create problems for the relationship, he said.
Booth said the study showed that more people believe that marriage should be a lifelong arrangement, which has a positive effect on marital quality.
"We went through a period in this country, and perhaps are still in it, where more people thought about how the relationship is helping them fulfill their need and not about how to improve the marriage and what they can do to increase their spouse's fulfillment," he added. "Some scholars think we are still going through that period. But it may be fading. The fact that more people are committed to lifelong marriage may indicate it's no longer the case."
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