Some explanations for marital happiness and marital distress

Abstract

This research tries to give and find some explanations for marital happiness and marital distress. Departing from an analysis of papers concerning research literature about different aspects of behaviour between spouses in happy and distressed marriages in particular, this research study concentrates on couples' communication patterns, financial input, children, power issues, the time spouses spend together, their leisure activities, behaviour exchange and spouse roles. Spouses in happy and distressed relationships were given an individual interview/questionnaire and an in-depth interview, both separately and as a couple. This provided data for both narrative and analysis. Although the sample taken was only made up of two couples, one happy and one distressed, results show that there is a difference in behaviour when the happy couple is compared to the distressed one. These findings suggest that although marital happiness or distress could be caused by many factors, spouse behaviour plays a very important role. Communication skills, the time spouses spend together and the respect that spouses have for each other are crucial elements in marital relationship and could easily be the cause of happiness or distress between a couple.