Compassionate Love in Marital Satisfaction among Married Couples between the ages of 25-60 in the Kandy District

Abstract

Background: Compassionate love plays an important role in marital satisfaction. The success of a marriage is disrupted due to factors such as a lack of support, and nurturance by partners, and not being able to share each other’s feelings freely which have led to stress, depression, divorce, and suicide. The current study identified three age categories namely young-aged couples, middle-aged couples, and old-aged couples. Objective: The current study aims to identify whether compassionate love leads to marital satisfaction in the three age categories. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted using 242 married couples through convenient sampling in the Kandy District. Data were collected by completing the Compassionate Love Scale for Specific Close Other and ENRICH Marital Satisfaction Scale (online), and the responses were recorded individually. The linear regression analysis was carried out using SPSS version 25. Ethical approval (KIU/ERC/21/13) was obtained from the Ethics Review Committee of KIU. Findings: The sample included three different age categories namely, young-aged couples (54.1%, n=131), middle-aged couples (28.1%, n=68), and old-aged couples (17.8%, n=43). The result revealed that there is a weak positive significant correlation between compassionate love and marital satisfaction in young-aged couples, middle-aged couples, and old-aged couples with (r=0.34, p<0.01 (M=28.9 SD=±3.07), r=0.26, p =0.027 (M=43.8 SD=±4.17), r=0.357, p=0.019 (M=54.8 SD=±2.63) respectively. Conclusion: The findings showed that although compassionate love is correlated with marital satisfaction in the three age categories, the relationship is not very strong. Compassionate Love in Marital Satisfaction among Married Couples between the Ages of 25-60 in Kandy District