Leisure Activities and Marital Satisfaction
Not much empirical data has been collected regarding leisure activities and marital satisfaction. But with the research that has been conducted, it has been found that leisure activities influence marital satisfaction positively. Happily married men and women were likely to value spending time together, enjoy activities done together, and agree on recreation needs. Some research has focused on the compatibility between married couples and this influence on the types of leisure activities they choose and the relationship between their overall marital satisfactions. Some research that focused on the relationship between leisure companionship and marital satisfaction found these couples tended to participate in activities that both partners enjoyed.
In a study conducted by Orthner et al. (1975), the overall amount of time spent together in leisure activities is positively related to marital satisfaction for both males and females. Participants filled out a questionnaire measuring the pattern of interaction between spouses during leisure time and how much time is spent in individual, parallel, and joint leisure activities. It was found that wives spent more time alone in leisure activities than husbands across the marital career, but this individual participation was negatively correlated with marriage satisfaction. As well, the scores for marriage satisfaction were more stable for wives than husbands over time. Overall, this study concluded that the benefit of participating in leisure activities as a married couple is improved communication. Marital participation in leisure activities is the most critical during the first years of marriage and after 18-23 years of marriage when the marital relationship is reestablishing itself.
Research regarding compatibility in spouses and the relationship between leisure activities and marital satisfaction have found that the couples who are less compatible are more prone to pursue leisure activities separately than highly compatible couples. This study concluded that the more spouses liked the leisure activities they were participating in, the higher their marital satisfaction was. Essentially the results of this study determined that couples participating in leisure activities together positively correlated with their marriage satisfaction.
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