Abstract
In this research we aimed to study how couples perceive their marital relationships. More specifically, our goal was to ascertain the way middle class couples, living in Brazil, evaluate the quality of their current marital relationships. 100 cohabiting couples were asked to fulfill the Marriage and Relationship Questionnaire (MARQ), and we found that 86% lived together for 12.62 years on average and declared to be satisfied with their relationship. Jealousy, partnership and love were found to be the most relevant factors for marital satisfaction, thereby reaffirming the Evolutionary Psychology hypotheses about the omnipresence of love and jealousy as elements of cohesion in humans. Selection for those factors may have occurred from early mankind on, particularly with regard to the establishment and maintenance of affective partnerships.
Highlights
The major raw scores of couples were seen on the sexual jealousy scale (M = 3.6, SD = 1.05), followed by the partnership scale (M = 3.46, SD = 1.92) and on the love scale (M = 3.38, SD = 1.98), thereby pinpointing the most important factors for marital satisfaction
In this study we found that Brazilian couples were satisfied with their marital relationship and that sexual jealousy is considered the most important factor for marital satisfaction
The results found in this study strengthen the presuppositions of Evolutionary Psychology with regard to the omnipresence of love and jealousy as uniting factors in the establishment of couples and/or affective partnerships among hominids, from the age of our ancestors up to today
Summary
Marital satisfaction is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon (Mósmann, Wagner, & Féres-Carneiro, 2007), which has been extensively explored by the most diverse scientific fields (Berger & Kellner, 1970; Gottman, 1993; Feeney & Noller, 1990, 1992; Singly, 1993; Karney & Bradbury, 1995; Feeney, 1999; Féres-Carneiro, 1999; Perlin, 2006; Jablonski, 2010; Selcuk, Zayas, & Hazan, 2010; Mósmann & Falcke, 2007, 2011; Acevedo, Aron, Fisher, & Brown, 2012).Factors of cultural, religious, legal and educational origins, among others, help to shape our ideal of what is necessary for constituting an affective relationship, especially a marital one (Lalonde, Hynie, Pannu, & Tatla, 2004; Lucas, Parkhill, Wendorf, Imamoglu, Weisfeld, Weisfeld, & Shen, 2008; Wendorf, Lucas, Imamoglu, Weisfeld, & Weisfeld, 2011).How to cite this paper: Rebello, K., Silva Jr., M. Marital satisfaction is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon (Mósmann, Wagner, & Féres-Carneiro, 2007), which has been extensively explored by the most diverse scientific fields (Berger & Kellner, 1970; Gottman, 1993; Feeney & Noller, 1990, 1992; Singly, 1993; Karney & Bradbury, 1995; Feeney, 1999; Féres-Carneiro, 1999; Perlin, 2006; Jablonski, 2010; Selcuk, Zayas, & Hazan, 2010; Mósmann & Falcke, 2007, 2011; Acevedo, Aron, Fisher, & Brown, 2012). Religious, legal and educational origins, among others, help to shape our ideal of what is necessary for constituting an affective relationship, especially a marital one (Lalonde, Hynie, Pannu, & Tatla, 2004; Lucas, Parkhill, Wendorf, Imamoglu, Weisfeld, Weisfeld, & Shen, 2008; Wendorf, Lucas, Imamoglu, Weisfeld, & Weisfeld, 2011). Fundamental Factors in Marital Satisfaction: An Assessment of Brazilian Couples.
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