WASHINGTON: Less materialistic spouses are more
likely to find themselves in happier marriages than those who dwell
too much on money and possessions, a trio of US researchers
say.
In findings published Thursday, the team led by Jason Carroll at
Brigham Young University in Utah explored the impact that value
differences about materialism could have on a marriage.
Previous studies limited themselves only to materialism in itself,
and not the importance that husbands and wives placed on material
things.
From data collected from 1,734 couples, they concluded that, even
among spouses who shared the same materialistic values,
"materialism had a negative association with marital
quality."
"Marriages in which both spouses reported low materialism were
better off on several features of marital quality when compared to
couples where one or both spouses reported high materialism," they
wrote.
Besides money woes, materialistic couples also had less effective
ways of communicating, and more negative ways of resolving
conflicts.
Giving practical purpose to their work, the researchers said their
findings supported a notion that a couple's financial problems were
more likely the outcome of behavior or attitude issues, and not
just simply a lack of money.
The findings appeared in the Journal of Couple and Relationship
Therapy, a scholarly publication for marriage counsellors and other
working with couples in rough relationship waters.
- AFP/ck
