Money to Marriage, or Marriage to Money? Examining the Directionality Between Financial Processes and Marital Processes Among Newlywed Couples

Abstract

Researchers have shown that if couples manage their money in sound ways, their marriages may benefit. Scholars have also shown that the quality of a marriage may precede positive financial behaviors. Previous studies have not determined the directionality of these processes, but researchers have assumed that it flows from financial variables to marital satisfaction. Utilizing a sample of U.S. mixed-gender, newlywed dyads ( N = 1220), we examined which is a stronger association: financial processes predicting marital processes or marital processes predicting financial processes. Specifically, we estimated three dyadic, structural equation models to examine cross-lagged associations between husbands’ and wives’ own financial behaviors and their own marital satisfaction, between husbands’ and wives’ own financial communication and their own marital satisfaction, and between husbands’ and wives’ own financial behaviors and their own financial communication across two waves of data. We found that husbands’ marital satisfaction predicted rank-order change in their reports of financial communication more strongly than the reverse. Furthermore, we found that wives’ financial behaviors predicted rank-order change in their reports of financial communication more strongly than the reverse. These results have implications for theory, future research, and improving the financial and marital wellbeing of U.S. mixed-gender, newlywed couples.

How individuals perceive their partner’s relationship behaviors when worrying about finances

“…We assessed financial worry at the same time as reports of relationship behaviors. Thus, the direction of the association cannot be ascertained (see Saxey et al, 2023 , for a discussion of bi-directionality between finances and relationship outcomes). It is also possible that there are variables such as mental health concerns that affect both financial worry and perception of relationship behaviors.…”