Eden Moss and Dr. Brian J. Willoughby, School of Family Life

The Marital Paradigm framework [MPF] (Willoughby & Hall, 2013) is a new conceptual model and body of terminology focused on organizing marital attitudes scholarship. Recent scholarship has established that marital attitudes have a strong impact on outcomes. Willoughby and colleagues’ work demonstrates the effect an individual’s marital attitudes have on the formation of others’ marital attitudes, from which measureable outcomes such as delaying marriage have been found (Willoughby & Carrol, 2012; Willoughby & Olson, 2012). Considering this connection between marital attitudes and outcomes, we decided to investigate another outcome of importance in relation to marital attitudes—life satisfaction. General attitudinal research has been linked with life satisfaction using to the “top-down” argument, which posits that one’s attitudes are a causal factor in one’s experience perception (Diener & Ryan, 2009). Marital attitudes are defined by MPF into six dimensions which encompass beliefs about getting married and being married, with three dimensions in each. Marital beliefs are smaller components of the larger attitude.

This study focused on the dimension of marital context, which “refers to [general] beliefs an individual has regarding what individual, relational and cultural context marriage should occur within” (Willoughby & Hall, 2013). Within the domain of marital context, we explored the reasons people chose to marry and how those reasons were associated with their current life satisfaction. We had three research questions connected with the study.1) How are life satisfaction and reasons for marriage related? 2) How do attitudes towards the institution of marriage affect married couples? 3) What effect does the amount of importance placed family life have on life satisfaction?

Participants

This study was done using secondary data analysis. Data for came from the Changing American Family Survey. Results are based on telephone interviews from a nationally representative sample of 2,691 adults living in the continental United States. Three key demographic groups were oversampled – cohabiting parents, divorced or separated parents, and never-been-married parents. 48.5% of the sample was male, 51.5% female. The mean age of the sample was 45 years, and the age range was 18-65+. The ethnic distribution was 69.1% White, 17.7% African-American, 2.5% Asian American, and 8.9% other, with African-American and Hispanic respondents oversampled.

Measures

To assess beliefs about the reasons to marry, two items were asked. Non-married participants were asked what they felt the most important reason to marry was and given five options (love, companionship, etc). Married individuals were asked which reason they believed was the most important reason why they married.
To assess beliefs about how marriage was advantageous, participants were asked if six items (“having social status”) would be easier for single or married people. A new variable which summed the number of items where participants indicated marriage as advantageous to singlehood was created.

It was asked how important family was in their lives, currently. This question played a significant role in determining general attitudes toward marriage and family. Overall life satisfaction and satisfaction specific to varying life domains (i.e. “family life”, “personal finances”) were assessed on a four point scale (very satisfied to very dissatisfied).

Results

The three significant reasons for marriage were financial stability, love, and companionship, each at the p=.05 level. The mean differences showed a negative relationship between marrying for financial stability and life satisfaction, while love and companionship had positive relationships with life satisfaction.
Results suggested that more belief that marriage was advantageous was significantly related to more satisfaction with family life but less satisfaction with personal finances for married couples. ANCOVA results controlling for gender, age, and race also suggested that among those who were married, significant differences were found on assessments of life satisfaction (Wilks Λ = .979, p = .003, partial η2 = .011). Significant univariate results were found for both measures of family life and social life satisfaction. Table 1 also summarizes final estimated mean results.

There were significant mean differences between the importance of family life and life satisfaction, both generally and more specifically. Table 2(left) showed overall life satisfaction to be significantly positively related to the importance of family life (“most important aspect of my life”) at the p=.05 level, which was replicated.

Discussion & Implications

The only significant relationship concerning the reasons for marrying came between “for love or for money”. Something about marrying primarily for financial stability undermines the life and family satisfaction of the individual who made that choice. We hypothesize for suture studies that this is due to the lack of relationship quality and genuine romantic feeling that couples who married for financial stability may experience.

The benefits of believing marriage is advantageous to life satisfaction seem pretty straightforward—one believes they are doing something beneficial for themselves, and that belief colors their interactions to make the marriage, family, and overall life of the individual more satisfactory.

The final finding of the centrality of family life associating with higher life satisfaction implies that family life is particularly salient to overall life satisfaction. We hypothesize that conscious choice to make family central to one’s life increases the likelihood that one is intentionally cultivating a positive family environment for one’s self and other family members, increasing both family and overall life satisfaction.

Future studies can expand by investigating the overlap between these factors, such as determining whether the combination of the beliefs of the advantageousness of marriage, family centrality, and marrying for love and companionship result in higher life satisfaction than holding just one or two of these beliefs.

References

• Diener, E., Ryan, K. (2009). Subjective well-being: A general overview. South African Journal of Psychology, 39(4), 391-406.
• Willoughby, B. J., Carroll, J. S., Vitas, J. M., & Hill, L. M. (2012). “When Are You Getting Married?” The Intergenerational Transmission of Attitudes Regarding Marital Timing and Marital Importance. Journal of Family Issues, 33(2) doi: 10.1177/0192513X11408695
• Willoughby, B.J., Hall, S. S., Luczak, H. P. (2013). Marital Paradigms: A Conceptual Framework for Marital Attitudes, Values and Beliefs.
• Willoughby, B. J., Olson, C. D., Carroll, J. S., Nelson, L. J., & Miller, R. B. (2012). Sooner or Later? The Marital Horizons of Parents and their Emerging Adult Children. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 29(7) doi: 10.1177/0265407512443637