How can you increase your chances of having a happy, satisfying marriage and reduce your chances of divorce, abuse, or having a miserable marriage? Our latest scholarly article has the answer.
According to numerous studies, a key predictor of marital happiness is an egalitarian marriage. That’s right: egalitarian marriages are less likely to end in divorce, less likely to be abusive, and more likely to be satisfying and happy.
According to Barna Research, divorce rates among Christians are, unfortunately, similar to those of the general population. However, quite a few studies indicate that the overwhelming majority of Christians who have troubled marriages are those who are in a traditional (hierarchical) marriage. Likewise, those in hierarchical (also called complementarian) marriages are far more likely to report being unhappy or even abused. So it would seem that the secret to a happy marriage has to do with your view (and practice) of gender equality.
Scholar Dennis Preato, MDiv, writes about this in more detail in his latest article, entitled Egalitarian Marriages Prove Happier than Hierarchical Marriages. You’ll find it, along with several other excellent resources, on our articles page. Click over to read it and find out why:
- Couples who share power and responsibility equally, who do not follow a hierarchical marriage model, are 450 percent more likely to be happy than those who have a hierarchical, complementarian marriage.
- The inability to share leadership equally (couple inflexibility) was the top stumbling block to a happy marriage.
- Traditional couples experienced spousal abuse in 21% of marriages, far more than egalitarian marriages or even atheist marriages!
- About 82 percent of couples where both spouses identified their relationship as traditional (hierarchical) reported being mainly unhappy.
Learn more about the research on marital happiness by reading the full article by Empower contributor Dennis Preato. And please leave a comment below to let us know what you think.