marital happiness

The more things change, the more marriages stay the same

Despite major economic and social changes, the overall quality of marriage in the United States has not changed in the last 20 years, 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, distinguished 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.”

Married not much happier than unmarried, study finds

In a large longitudinal study that sheds new light on the association between marital status and happiness, researchers have found that people get a boost in life satisfaction from marriage. But the increase in happiness is very small — approximately one tenth of one point on an 11-point scale — and is likely due to initial reactions to marriage and then a return to prior levels of happiness. Data from the 15-year study of over 24,000 individuals living in Germany also indicates that most people who get married and stayed married are more satisfied with their lives than their non-married peers long before the marriage occurred.