Happiest type of marriage revealed
The key to a happy marriage is having a partner who’s also your best friends, according to a new study on marital satisfaction by National Bureau of Economic Research.
Researchers have long sought the reasons behind why married people tend to be healthier and happier than others. Is it because marriage makes you happier or because happier people are more likely to marry?
Using data from the British Household Panel Survey, researchers studied premarital wellbeing and concluded that marriage leads to more happiness in people.
“We find that the married have a less deep U-shape in life satisfaction across age groups than do the unmarried, indicating that marriage may help ease the causes of the midlife dip in life satisfaction and that the benefits of marriage are unlikely to be short-lived,” study authors Shawn Grover and John F. Helliwell wrote.
The paper also noted that friendship was the main factor in marital happiness, finding that those who consider their partner their best friend showed double the life satisfaction and happiness than those who don’t.
“An important role that a spouse continues to play in a successful marriage is that of a close friend and confidant,” Grover and Helliwell wrote.
Surprisingly, although women are more likely to find satisfaction in being married to their best friend compared to men, they are less likely to consider their spouse their best friend.
"This paper provides evidence that the long-term benefits of marriage are substantial and worth further exploration,” Grover and Helliwell wrote. “While all friends are important for happiness, those who share beliefs or are married to each other are super-friends, with wellbeing effects apparently much larger than for friends on average.”