The size of the wedding, decision making and past relationships could have an impact on marriage, according to a newly released study.
In the study, "Before I Do: What Do Premarital Experiences Have To Do With Marital Quality Among Today's Young Adults?," psychologists Galena K. Rhoades and Scott M. Stanley at the University of Virginia's National Marriage Project argue that past romances and their fallouts have an impact on the future of a marriage, The Blaze reported Wednesday. For example, "men and woman who had a child before marriage are less likely to enjoy a high-quality marriage," the pyschologists said.
Couples who make intentional decisions regarding major relationship changes are more likely to stick together than those who simply end up in certain situations, according to the study. For instance, among couples who lived together, the ones that decided to live together before marriage on purpose were found to be in happier marriages. Couples that slid into cohabitation without much thought process were less likely to be satisfied.
"We believe that one important obstacle to marital happiness is that many people now slide through major relationship transitions - like having sex, moving in together, getting engaged or having a child - that have potentially life-altering consequences," Stanley said, according to The Christian Post
Among those with 50 or fewer wedding guests, 31 percent reported a high-quality marriage. For those with 51 to 149 guests, that number rose to 37 percent. Among couples with 150 or more guests, 47 percent reported having a very high-quality marriage, the research showed.
The researchers recruited between 2007 and 2008 more than 1,000 Americans who were unmarried, but in a relationship with someone of the opposite sex, and between the ages of 18 and 34. Over the course of the next five years, 418 subjects got married, and the researchers looked closely at the marriages, according to the National Marriage Project.
