HOW TO HAVE A FULFILLING MARRIAGE

(August, 2014) (Study at: https://www.du.edu/relationshipstudy/)
A pair of psychology researchers from the University of Denver studied 418 participants in a Relationship Development Study. The goal was to identify patterns of behavior that tended to set people up for successful and fulfilling marriages. The researchers asked study volunteers questions about “marital happiness, confiding in one another, believing things are going well in the relationship, and thoughts of divorce.” Researchers found that the choices men and women make long before they say “I do” seem to have a strong influence on their marriages years later. Some of the findings:
– Volunteers were asked how many sexual partners they had before they got married, and the response (on average) was five. But 23% of them had slept only with the person they married, and they scored higher on the marriage quality test than those who had more experience.
– For women, the higher the number of sexual partners, “the less happy she reported her marriage to be,” according to the report.
– People who had already been through a divorce or who had lived with someone before meeting their current spouse were also less likely to have a high-quality marriage.
– 32% of the study volunteers said their relationship with their husband or wife began with a casual hookup. Among these folks, 36% had a high-quality marriage, compared with 42% of those who took things more slowly.
– Only 3% of college-educated couples who had a baby before they got married had a high-quality marriage.
– 47% of couples that got hitched in front of 150 or more guests had high-quality marriages, compared with only 31% of those who had 50 or fewer guests. According to the study, “There is some reason to believe that having more witnesses at a wedding may actually strengthen marital quality. People want to keep the promises they make in public, so the bigger the crowd, the greater the pressure.”
* This study sponsored by the Association of Wedding Caterers.
* Fewer sexual partners is better? Well – too late for me, then.
* Only 418 participants, because nobody felt like working late that day.
* Wow, when they reduce it to cold numbers like this it just zaps all the fun out of life.
* If there’s more people watching you get married there’s greater pressure on you so that leads to a high-quality marriage? Let’s call it what that really is: coercion.
* Prince Charles and Diana got married in front of millions. How did that work out?