Marital Sanctity, Relationship Maintenance, and Marital Quality

Abstract

It has been argued that individuals who consider their marriages as sacred are likely to put greater effort into protecting those marriages. As relationship maintenance behaviors have been defined as efforts enacted to maintain features such as marital satisfaction, it is possible that relational maintenance behaviors serve as a link between marital sanctity and marital satisfaction. A sample of 244 heterosexual married couples completed measures of marital sanctity, relationship maintenance, and marital quality. Analyses revealed that one’s own belief in the sanctity of one’s marriage was associated with one’s reported engagement in relational maintenance behaviors. These were linked to one’s partner’s marital satisfaction. Findings suggest that one’s perception of the sanctification of one’s marriage might be manifested in one’s engagement in relational maintenance behaviors and account, in part, for the association between one’s belief in the sanctity of one’s marriage and one’s spouse’s marital satisfaction.