A new study has revealed that men's happiness predominantly depends upon the level of satisfaction their wives have with marriage. It is because when a wife is satisfied with the marriage, she does a lot for her husband, which in turn makes the husband happy with his life, said Deborah Carr, a professor in the Department of Sociology, School of Arts and Science.
Carr said men are not very open about their relationships and it could not be said with surety if their unhappiness with marriage really has an effect on the happiness of their wives.
The study, published in the October issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family, was co-authored by Carr and Vicki Freedman, a research professor at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research.
During the study, the participants were asked questions like if their spouse appreciates them, argues with them, respects their feelings or makes them angry. Also, they were asked to describe how happy they were in the previous 24 hours doing selected activities like shopping, doing household chores and watching television.
The study participants, on an average, scored high in general life satisfaction, with husbands rating their marriage slightly more positive than their wives. Greater life satisfaction and happiness was found to have an association with better-rated marriage for both spouses, said Carr.
She also said that when husbands fall ill, their wives' happiness gets negatively affected in contrast to men's happiness when their wives fall ill. The major reason behind this is a fact that women are often the caregivers when their husbands become sick, whereas men hardly play the same role when their wives fall ill.
'The quality of a marriage is important because it provides a buffer against the health-depleting effects of later life stressors and helps couples manage difficult decisions regarding health and medical decision making', said Carr.
