Materialism Hurts Marriages

Materialistic married couples may have more money, but they also have more relationship problems, according to a new study.

Previous research has shown that spousal materialism is negatively associated with marital satisfaction.

Yet, scholars still have yet to determine if the link between money and a happy, stable marriage is due to value differences between partners, or if materialism is problematic even when couples place a similar priority on material goods and money.

New research from scholars at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, has found that money – and what and how much that money buys – can determine if couples have a happy, stable marriage.

Couples – 1,734 of them from across the country – were asked to complete a relationship evaluation, part of which asked them how much value they place on “having money and lots of things.”

The findings were surprising, noted the study's lead author, Jason Carroll, a BYU professor of family life, in a BYU news release.

“It’s helpful to step back and look at where you focus your time,” he said.

Couples who say money is not important to them scored 10 to 15 percent better on marriage stability and other measures of relationship quality than partnerships where one, or both individuals, are materialistic. The complete study was published in the Oct. 13 issue of the Journal of Couple & Relationship Therapy (Volume 10, Issue 4, 2011).

"Couples where both spouses are materialistic were worse off on nearly every measure we looked at," Carroll said in the release. "There is a pervasive pattern in the data of eroding communication, poor conflict resolution and low responsiveness to each other."

The study’s results also found that one in five couples admitted a strong desire for money. And it was among these couples, which were better off financially the researchers noted, that money was often a bigger source of conflict in their relationship.

Marriages in which both spouses reported low materialism were better off on several features of marital quality, the study found, when compared to couples where one or both spouses reported high materialism, or rather, they were unified in materialistic value views.

Part of Carroll's surprise with the study’s overall findings, he noted, was because materialism was only measured by self-evaluations.

“How these couples perceive their finances seems to be more important to their marital health than their actual financial situation,” he said.

“Sometimes people can deceive themselves about how important their relationships are to them.”

Tags: couples money study materialism relationship their materialistic where value noted