What is the secret to a happy and long-lasting marriage? Everyone has an opinion and while friendship, mutual respect or keeping hobbies are somewhat obvious factors, the contentment of the wife is surprisingly crucial one. A new research has found that wife’s happiness is the key to the long marriage.
Of course, marital bliss is a combination of several factors, but researchers say that the husband’s life is directly influenced by the happiness of the female partner. Hence, marital counseling is well worth it.
In a new study, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, scientists surveyed nearly 400 couples, who were, on average, married for 39 years. The study focused on older participants because they wanted to assess the quality of the marriages and the levels of satisfaction in the long term. The survey included various questions to assess people’s personal feelings towards their spouse – whether or not their spouse appreciates them, understands their feelings, or argues with them. Overall, the results suggested that happier marriages were linked to general life satisfaction, hardly a surprise.
But what was quite unexpected, was the fact that husbands tended to be happier when their wives were more content with the union in the long term. Lead researcher Dr. Deborah Carr of the Rutgers University in the U.S. explains that when a wife is happy within her marriage, she does a lot more for her husband. As a result, he feels better and more satisfied with life in general. Interestingly, women feel bad when their husband gets sick, while husbands aren’t particularly bothered if their wife is sick. While men expect their wife to take care of them in times of sickness, women rely on their daughters, showing that women are indeed more caring and probably responsible than men.
So, scientists recommend that in order to be happy, men should stop being selfish and try to keep the wife happy, too. Her contentment will have a positive effect on the husband’s life – preparing his favourite meals is just one of the many benefits.
