Maritial Satisfaction

Running head:  MARITAL SATISFACTION

Marital Satisfaction

Liberty University

COUN 603

Premarital and Marital Counseling

Abstract

This paper was written to show the effects of unresolved conflict of marriages. The paper centers on how newlyweds behave with their intimate partner and how it can later generate to violence. It will talk about the model of marital satisfaction and how long does it last according to study and also the conflicts that may come during the course of the marriage. Inside this paper it will discuss conflict, intimate issues, and personality issues. It also discusses counselor recommendations.

Marital Satisfaction

        Marriage is often looked at as a great thing. Many couples are very happy with each other when they first say “I do.” Often couples remain in their honeymoon period for the first few years of their marriage. It may come to some people as a surprise that there are couples who have abuse going on in their marriage. A lot of the abuse takes place during the first couple of years.  

“Marriage satisfaction is defined as the degree to which spouses perceive that their partners meet the needs and desires of each other” (Peleg, 2008). According to the findings from the study, satisfaction within marriages could be closely related to the protection of family. Some studies that have been done from Peleg state that there are a number of factors that could be significant in marital satisfaction. The study continues to examine autonomy from others and the intimacy of others.  The more couples are different in their autonomy, the more it causes them to be overpowered by the emotion (Peleg, 2008).

During a study about intimate partner violence, they used diaries in order to keep record of the honeymoon and how it was going for them. During the examination of the study, it was shown that some wives did express some violence during the course of their marriage in the beginning. There were also some wives reporting they had experienced more rigorous acts of violence (McNutly and Hellmuth, 2008).

Mental Health and Marriages

In many situations, mental health is affected majoring when it comes to marital issues. A person who suffers from mental health is “a person with a mental illness, or a mental health disorder, has a disease of the mind that triggers emotional and behavioral problems. Mental illness can cause distress and disability, as well as interfere with interpersonal relationships. The two most common mental health disorders are depression and anxiety disorder.” (Freemd.com, 2010  para 1). Major depression can be a serious effect on a person who is suffering from violence within their marriage. Studies indicate that issues within marriage come about during the first four years in marriages due to the decline in satisfaction between the couples. The results was based on couples who had been married for a short time verses the couples that has been married for a long time (Kouros, 2008).

According to some research,  marital distress symptoms causes a array of depression between couples who have been depressed as an adolescent and how it carried over into their adulthood. Many other symptoms included in marital dissatisfaction are low self-esteem, and phobias. The phobias were revealed when the link between marital satisfaction and depressive symptoms where displayed in a hostile marriage. (Hostile conflict can be associated with decreased marital satisfaction and depressive symptomatology” (Kouros, 2008).

Three experiments were done on this study. The study includes goals that were used. The first goal provided information on how to examine the couple over a period of time on their marital satisfaction.  Based on the statistics, marriage satisfaction was planned to decrease over a period of time.  The second study, it showed how depression came about when the husband or wife changed during a course of their marriage. This study displayed how a person who is already depressed made the marriage depression jump to a higher level and there was no satisfaction.  The third and last study done was the examination of marriages, when the difference between marital satisfaction and depressive symptoms where based upon the length of their relationship.  What this study showed was that it could not support its findings based on the length of time each couple had been married. They decided that the length of marriage really was based on the marital satisfaction. (Kouros, 2008).

Intimacy in Marriages

Marriage satisfaction can be improved by bringing together marriage relationships. It is important for the couple to stop blaming each other for the things and understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses. In some study findings, there is a lot of given and taking in marriages. According to recent findings, marriage satisfaction often decline due to gender differences in some cases.  In longer marriages, there was a slower level of emotional declines, causing the marriage to stay together longer.  However, a reasonable explanation for this finding was the truth that marital intimacy plays a key role in the marriage satisfaction.  Marital satisfaction was more involved in marriages that had their sexual desires met.

Intimacy is very important in marriages. It is a connection with each other that often times show love and affection. When sex becomes an issue in marriage and one partner is not completed satisfied, it causes elevated levels of distress and conflict in the marriage (Peleg, 2008).  Sex in a marriage is very important when making a marriage work. It is important especially when both partners desire it. When one partner is not on the same level as the other, it can cause a lot of conflict throughout the marriage.

History tells us that many Americans get divorced because of a partner who is unsatisfied in their marriage. It also reports that success in marriages includes stability and quality, which are separate dimensions in marriage (Robinson, 2001). Reports show that marital quality include “limited to love first of all, reciprocity, religious affiliation, communication among each other, understanding of each other’s needs, faithful commitment, intimacy, shared responsibility, allowing one to have their own identity, hopefulness, must be flexible, have limits, how each other view each before they get married and spousal expectations,” (Robinson, 2001).