Highly satisfied and healthy, with room for improvementThe majority of those people in committed relationships, regardless of their ethnicity or their age, reported being satisfied with their relationship. This was an expected result and is typical for most marriage satisfaction research; happy couples tend to believe that they have better relationships than other people they know. However, of that 84% who reported being satisfied, less than half (47%) reported being “completely” satisfied with their relationship. These figures are similar to those from a large, national study of married couples who were followed over a 20-year period by the noted sociologist Paul Amato.Despite high levels of satisfaction in these Texas relationships, there seems to be room for improvement. Not only did this sample report being highly satisfied, they consider themselves to be in “very healthy relationships” (95% overall). However, when talking about areas of improvement for one’s relationship, even those who say they have “very healthy” relationships can readily give a variety of suggestions where improvements can be made. It is important to place this finding into context with what is known about marriage and divorce. Research from a large-scale, national study of family life (National Study of Families and Households) documented that a large majority of divorces come from marriages in which, just a few years earlier, spouses said they were happy. It is possible that relationships are subject to the same laws as physical systems; that they tend to fall apart and get more chaotic over time unless more energy is put into them. Nurturing the relationships of satisfied couples is not just “frosting on the cake;” it may help prevent serious problems that could eventually threaten those relationships. Harris, S.M., Glenn, N.D, Rappleyea, D.L., Diaz-Loving, R., Hawkins, A.J., Daire, A. P., Osborne, C., & Huston, T.L. (2008). Twogether in Texas: Baseline Report on Marriage in the Lone Star State. Austin, TX: Health and Human Services Commission.
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