It is no surprise that marriage to a happy person is more likely to last than marriage to an unhappy person—common sense tells us that. But linking a happy marriage to life and death is rather perplexing. Most couples would admit that their spouse’s happiness brings them joy to some degree, but marital satisfactionmight not only lead to a happy life but a longer one, too.
A new study, published inPsychological Science, a journal of theAssociation for Psychological Science, states that having a happy spouse not only increases the length of our relationships but our lives, too.
“The data showed that spousal life satisfaction was associated with mortality, regardless of individuals’ socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, or their physical health status,”
says Olga Stavrova, a researcher at Tilburg University in the Netherlands.
Stavrova researched and surveyed approximately 4,400 couples in the United States who were over the age of 50.For up to eight years, participants reported on life satisfaction.At the end of eight years, about 16% of participants had died and previously report lower relationship satisfaction, lower life satisfaction, and having a partner who also reported lower life satisfaction.
Upon further research, Stavrova discovered that the risk of mortality for participants with a happy spouse increased more slowly than mortality risk for participants with an unhappy spouse.Which makes total sense, consideringprevious researchhas shown that individuals’ career success and relationship satisfaction are predicted by their spouses’ dispositional characteristics.
