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The Relationship Between Marital Satisfaction, Family Relation And Psychological Distress
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The perception and the meaning of marriage may
change not only as a result of societal and cultural changes, but also
due to personal development of each partner, context of the relationship
and different stages in marriage. While it is generally believed that
marital satisfaction follows a U-shape pattern over the lifespan, with a
decline after the birth of the first child (Hirschberger, Srivastava,
Marsh, Cowan, & Cowan, 2009) and an increase after the last child
leaves the house (Anderson, Russell, & Schuman, 1983; Gelles, 1995),
other studies have questioned such development in marital satisfaction.
VanLaningham, Johnson, and Amato (2001) found that marital satisfaction
follows a more linear declining trajectory, with steep declines in the
earliest and the latest years of marriage. On the other hand, the
research by Lavner and Bradbury (2010) showed that not all couples
follow the same pattern in marital satisfaction. In their study, couples
who had an initially higher level of satisfaction were able to preserve
it on a relatively high level, while those couples who had a lower
level of marital satisfaction were more likely to experience even
further declines in satisfaction over a 10 year period. The former and
the latter types of couples differed on personality traits, stress,
aggression, and communication behavior.
Along with its changing
nature, the subjectivity of the concept of marital satisfaction is
another difficulty faced by the researchers. It is almost impossible to
identify a set of characteristics of spouses or relationships that would
make marriage satisfying for every individual: what works for one
couple might be unacceptable for the other. There were many attempts to
find what factors contribute to marital satisfaction. While an
exhaustive list of those characteristics would be impossible to develop,
Rosen-Grandon, Myers, and Hattie (2004) named love, loyalty, and shared
values among the most influential characteristics of relationships.
Among other factors contributing to happy marriage Rosen-Grandon et al.
listed respect, forgiveness, romance, support, sexuality/intimacy, and
“open communication and agreement on expression of affection†(p. 65).
In
their review of literature on marital quality, Larson and Holman (1994)
identified a variety of factors that influence marital satisfaction,
marital stability and marital quality. Among factors that were found to
be associated with quality of marriage were background and contextual
factors, individual traits and behaviors of spouses and couples'
interactional processes.
Each spouse brings into a newly created
union a legacy of his or her background, including family of origin and
relationships in this family; socio-cultural factors such as age at
marriage, income and education; as well as current contexts of
relationships with friends (Larson & Holman, 1994), family members
(Reczek, Liu, & Umberson, 2010), and other people. Individual traits
and behaviors also affect spouse’s satisfaction with marriage (Larson
& Holman, 1994). Among these traits are personality and the physical
and mental health of the spouse. For example, depression (Whisman,
Uebelacker, & Weinstock, 2004), neuroticism, chronic stress, low
self-esteem, trait anger (Lavner & Bradbury, 2010) and impulsivity
(Kelly & Conley, 1987) income and education; as well as current
contexts of relationships with friends (Larson & Holman, 1994),
family members (Reczek, Liu, & Umberson, 2010), and other people.
Individual traits and behaviors also affect spouse’s satisfaction with
marriage (Larson & Holman, 1994).
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]Marital satisfaction is no longer a given in today’s world, with different factors contributing to the poor marital quality experienced in most marriages. This study attempted to find out if there is any relationship between factors affecting marriages. Participants were chosen via purposive sampling, where married people were the intended target. Marital satisfaction, family relations and psychological distress were carefully examined to see if there is any relationship between them. Als ... Continue reading---
