A wife's happiness is more important than a husband's for a happy married life, a new study finds.
The study was conducted by researchers from Rutgers University, noting that the more content the wife is with the long-term union, the happier the husband is with his life, no matter how he feels about their nuptials.
"I think it comes down to the fact that when a wife is satisfied with the marriage she tends to do a lot more for her husband, which has a positive effect on his life," Deborah Carr, a professor in the Department of Sociology at Rutgers University, said in a press statement. "Men tend to be less vocal about their relationships and their level of marital unhappiness might not be translated to their wives."
For the study, researchers analyzed data of 394 couples who were part of a national study of income, health and disability in 2009. At least one of the spouses was 60 or older and on average, couples were married for 39 years. Researchers examined the personal feelings of both spouses to determine how these marital appraisals influence the psychological well-being of older adults. For this, the participants were asked several questions about their relationship, including such as whether their spouse appreciates them, argues with them, understands their feelings or gets on their nerves. They were also asked to keep a dairy to record how happy they were in the previous 24 hours doing selected activities like shopping, doing household chores and watching television.
Researchers found that most participants rated their general life satisfaction high, typically five out of six points - with husbands rating their marriage slightly more positively than their wives.
The study noted that while wives became less happy if their spouses became ill, the husbands' happiness level didn't change or reflect the same outcome if their wives got sick.
"We know that when a partner is sick it is the wife that often does the caregiving, which can be a stressful experience," said Carr. "But often when a women gets sick it is not her husband she relies on but her daughter."
"The quality of a marriage is important because it provides a buffer against the health-depleting effects of later life stressors and helps couples manage difficult decisions regarding health and medical decision making," Carr added.
The study was published in the October issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family.
