The Effects of Religion on Enduring Marriages

Abstract

This article adds to recent literature in the study of religion and marriage by examining older couples' use of religion as a cultural repertoire in enduring marriages. The study includes qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with 43 married, Christian couples. Couples reported four predominant social contexts that gave sacred meanings to their marriage: prayer, worship services and sermons, first-rite rituals and communion. These social contexts magnify sacred meanings within religious cultural repertoires by enhancing older couples' perceptions of their marriages as sacred through formal and public recognition of their marriage longevity, lauding their marriage longevity as a blessing from God to be emulated, promoting religious meanings of familism and giving positive marriage outcomes sacred meanings. Negative effects of religion on marriage outcomes occurred among older couples when lived experiences of religion conflicted with their cultural expectations for enduring marriages. cultural theory in this study, the shared culture of these older, married couples is particularly important. Research indicates several potential links between religion and marriage outcomes. Higher levels of overall religiosity have been linked to greater marriage quality, marriage satisfaction and increased likelihood to remain married [25]. However, uncertain causality is a limitation of previous research because couples who have been married longer exhibit greater levels of religiosity [26,27], which confounds time-order effects in causality pathways. Nonetheless, overall higher levels of religiosity are related to adjustment to marriage, accommodating the needs and expectations of a spouse and adapting to changes resulting from being married [28]. Even among the unhappily married, increased religiosity has been linked to higher levels of marriage satisfaction [29]. Additionally, although religious participation does not appear to directly reduce barriers to marriage dissolution, a strong religious belief in marriage as a lifetime commitment has been linked to higher levels of marriage stability and quality [30,31].Establishing causality between religion and marriage outcomes is also complicated by the mediating effects of gender [32][33][34][35] and race [36][37][38]. Hansen [39] identified interaction effects between gender and religion in the measurement of marriage outcomes. According to his study, women develop gender-and religious-based values of compassion, self-sacrifice, obedience and humility, resulting in lower expectations of significant rewards from marriage while still being satisfied, regardless of their level of religiosity. There also appears to be an interaction effect on the relationship between religion and marriage outcomes related to dyadic religiosity, with higher levels of shared religious beliefs between spouses, shared religious convictions about the sanctity of marriage and shared religious beliefs concerning lifelong marriage being linked to better marriage outcomes, especially for wives [40].Bel...

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