The Effects of External Stressors on Marital Satisfaction

Abstract

Even though very few studies have investigated whether or not such stresses account for variance in the trajectories of marital functioning longitudinally and whether or not this is the case, research on external stress and marriage has recently received more interest. This is despite the fact that very few studies have examined whether or not such stresses account for variation in the trajectories of marital functioning. The current research looked at how levels of reported marital happiness varied over the first three years of marriage for a sample of 200 married couples from the state of XYZ who had been married for at least three years. The sample was drawn from married couples who had been living in the state for at least three years. Marriage happiness can be affected by both the amount of financial strain and the number of health problems experienced. The sample was comprised of information gathered over the first three years of the marriage. Even though various persons reported varying levels of happiness in their marriages, the results show that overall marital satisfaction has fallen. This is the case despite the fact that some people are happier in their marriages than others. The research also shown that the levels of stress in one’s environment have a major bearing on the degree to which one is satisfied with the marriage they have chosen to get into. Further explanation is provided regarding the ways in which an outside source of stress might put a strain on a marriage. According to the findings, people’s views of the behavior of their spouse are significantly more susceptible to the impacts of stress than either their own behavior or the behavior of their spouse. Neither of these behaviors was affected as much as the perceptions of the behavior of the spouse.

Introduction

The external environment that spouses and their union live in impacts the internal dynamics of a marriage. Since the groundbreaking work of (Brunstein et al., 1996) and over the following decades, numerous studies have shown the damaging consequences external stress can have on marital satisfaction. A study by (Brunstein et al., 1999) has shown that such a spillover impact from external stress can occur promptly, daily, and protractedly, long-term. There has not been much research done to determine whether external factors are the real cause of marriage change rates., despite the extensive literature relating stress to marital behaviors and outcomes. I want to know if external stress levels play a role in the changes over time that define marital life, whether they rise or decrease (Chi et al., 2011).

Stress has been linked to an “eroding” influence on marital quality, but rarely has this effect been the subject of research. Furthermore, despite receiving more attention recently, the mechanisms by which external stress affects marital outcomes still need to be better understood. In essence, it is well known that external stress can affect a marriage, but little is understood about how it does so. To correct these flaws, the current study longitudinally analyzes the individual and combined effects of two typical external stressors: financial strain and health concerns (Brunstein et al., 1998).

Analysis of within-person change over time allowed for a more accurate evaluation of the rates of change caused by different stresses. Additionally, the study tests several influence mechanisms to provide more light on how stress from outside the relationship affects experiences inside it. This comparison focuses on how stress from the outside world affects people’s conduct, either their behavior or how they perceive their spouses’ behavior (Mueller, 2006).

Literature Review

Theoretical Framework and Mechanisms of Influence

Every marriage is affected both by macro-level factors (i.e., the relationships between partners) and by micro-level factors (i.e., events and situations that take place outside the marriage). The Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation (VSA) model of relationship development offers a helpful framework for describing the multiple factors that influence the outcomes of marriages. This model is also known as the vulnerability-stress-adaptation model. This model is also known as the Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation Model. According to the model, the relationship quality and stability of married couples can be explained by the interaction of three distinct factors: individual vulnerabilities (such as personality and experiences with one’s family of origin), stressful life events (such as job pressure and job loss), and adaptive processes (such as problem-solving and attribution-making) all have a role in an individual’s risk of developing a mental illness. The VSA model illustrates how personal defects and stress from the outside world can alter adaption processes, which can affect how happy and stable a marriage is.(Navid et al., 2018).

The current study mainly focuses on the correlation between different stressful life situations over time (financial pressure and health concerns). The study concentrates on this feature of the basic VSA model. The last ten years have seen an increase in the study focused on determining the mechanisms underlying this link between stressful life events and marital processes. Identifies two critical paths of influence in her summary of this literature. To begin, it has been discovered that external stressors have an effect on marriage by raising the frequency of events that are detrimental to the relationship and decreasing the time that the couple has for activities that build the couple’s bond. This has been observed as a negative impact on marriage. The first method in which stressors can have an effect on a marriage is as follows:. (Qi et al., 2022).

Another way that external stressors affect marriage is by impairing spouses’ ability to think critically about one another and respond to stressful situations healthily. This is illustrated by the fact that wives are more likely to hold their partners accountable for behavioral transgressions when they are under above-average stress than when they are under normal stress. In addition, ladies (and husbands, to a lesser extent) who are under more stress report having less cognitive ability to distinguish between everyday stressors and overall relationship perceptions. (Panahi et al., 2018) Hypothesize that stressors outside the house affect family life by altering a person’s mood, physiology, perceptions, and social behavior.

Several naturalistic, short-term studies that stress that four mediating processes a reduction in the duration of time spouses utilize together, a decline in communication and interaction, an increase in the risk of psychological and physical problems, and an increase in the likelihood that damaging personality traits would manifest help explain the relationship between external stress and marital satisfaction lend support to this hypothesis.(Rivera-Aragon & Sanchez-Aragon, 2004).

External Stressors and Marriage

According to (Randall & Bodenmann, 2017), the term “external stressors” refers to the reoccurring strains brought on by issues not directly connected to the relationship. The current study focused on how the consequences of two kinds of external stresses, namely, financial difficulties and health problems, propagate throughout a population. These two criteria were selected because they were discussed rather frequently when discussing external concerns and because they were more prominent in XYZ communities than in the general population. The Family Stress Model’s body of study findings presents some of the most compelling instances of the topic, demonstrating that financial stress is a common external stressor in marriage research (Vaez & Juhari, 2017).

Increased levels of financial stress are linked to higher levels of marital misery, worse levels of marital satisfaction, and lower overall judgments of a marriage’s quality, according to studies that have employed this concept. These findings have been attributed to the notion. These connections have been discovered in studies involving XYZ couples’ samples. They have been witnessed across various nationalities and found that poorer health difficulties are associated with lower marital quality and, perhaps unexpectedly, lower spouse satisfaction. This was seen in the second external stressor (Wendołowska et al., 2022).

Despite these findings, it is still not entirely obvious to what extent external stressors contribute to changes in marriage patterns and the consequences of those marriages. Studies that do not retain continuity within individuals, whether cross-sectional or longitudinal, cannot assess this issue. If external stressors do “erode” relationship quality, then the fact that these stressors are present should assist in explaining some of the rates of change in relationship quality metrics. (Barton, 2013) conducted one of the few studies that were done in the past that looked at stress as a predictor of rates of change in the quality of marital relationships. Stress was found to be a substantial predictor of change in marital satisfaction rates over three years for a sample of XYZ couples. Couples who reported higher stress levels were connected to more significant reductions in marital happiness. The early levels of marital satisfaction were much lower, which was also significantly connected with higher levels of stress (Wendołowska et al., 2022).

Methodology

Participants and Procedures

Two hundred couples who lived in the state of XYZ made up the sample for the current study. Social media platforms were used to find and recruit study participants. Couples interested in participating in the study were sent letters with invitations. Couples had to live in XYZ state and be at least 20 years old to be considered for the study. After receiving permission, two interviewers visited the participants’ homes and spoke with each spouse separately. An interview-like reading of the questions was done to address any literacy issues and personalize questions better (for example, by adding the participant’s or their spouse’s name to the wording of specific questions) even though most of the questions consisted of standard self-report measures.

Each interview lasted an average of 30 minutes, and all of the interviewers were residents of the state of XYZ. In the sample of 200 couples, the average age of the husband was 35 and the average age of the wife was 30. Eighty-seven percent of spouses and eighty-five percent of wives had completed some education beyond high school, with the highest level of education completed ranging from elementary school to a bachelor’s degree. 56% of men and 73% of women said they had less than $30,000 in their pockets, 39% of husbands and 24% of wives said they had between $40,000 and $60,000, and 5% of husbands and 3% of wives said they had more than $70,000.

Measures

Financial Strain

The degree to which couples reported concern about their ability to pay for necessities including electricity, food, and medical care was measured using a 6-item scale. This was done to gauge the degree of financial stress that couples were under. We measured how much each participant agreed with the phrases “My spouse and I have enough money to pay our bills” and “We have enough money to afford the kind of food we need” using a Likert scale with five points (=.76,.80,.85).

Health problems

The health issue scale contained 11 items used to evaluate health issues. The index measured the degree of agreement (5-point Likert scale) on physical and social sign indicators. Higher scores on items that represent physical and social factors indicated more health issues ( =.89,.91,.90).

The correlation coefficients between the variables Health Problems, Financial Stress, and Marital Satisfaction are displayed in the table. The correlation coefficients are significant at the.05 level, as the asterisks indicate. The table demonstrates a positive association between health problems and financial stress, indicating that when one variable rises, so does the other. Financial stress, health concerns, and marital happiness all show negative relationships, which means that as one measure rises, the other falls (Pugh et al., 2004).

Data Analysis

The data were analyzed using SEM in this particular investigation.

Discussion

Comprehending how situational settings affect these unions is a significant, yet mostly unexplored, domain in efforts to account for variation in marital phenomena. To this goal, the current study investigated the relationships between marital happiness trajectories and levels of financial stress and health problems among couples from the XYZ state. By examining links to marital happiness, testing various influence mechanisms, and determining how stress levels can explain real rates of change, the findings provide significant contributions to this field. The findings indicate a positive link between health problems and financial stress, which means that if one variable rises, so does the other. Financial stress, health concerns, and marital happiness all show negative relationships, which means that as one measure rises, the other falls (Panahi et al., 2018).

An important turning point in a relationship’s downfall, according to marriage specialists, is when “the spouse’s existence is progressively linked to agony and dissatisfaction not pleasure or support.”

If this premise is true, explaining why this cognitive change happens is a very important problem. A wide variety of causes unavoidably causes this change; nonetheless, the negative bias associated with external stress may add to the explanation of why this shift occurred. People expect that their spouse will always be a source of comfort and support for them. However, during times of greater external stress, when they may be more likely to need spousal support and to a greater extent, they may discover that their partners do not always fulfill these expectations, which may cause them to view their behavior (and eventually their spouse as a whole) in an extremely negative light (Mikaeili Manee et al., 2022).

This study evaluated the single and combined longitudinal effects of external stresses. Financial stress showed more enduring unique impacts when combined. The fact that health issues continued to have a significant influence, especially on husbands, supports the idea that marital research should give this variable more attention. The findings also imply that financial stress and health problems, when taken together rather than separately, explain more diversity in marital dynamics, even though each had (to varying degrees) independent effects.

As a result, it might be easier to comprehend the effects of stressors together than separately (Qi et al., 2022). As a result, the idea of cumulative risk, which is well-known in research on human development, may be useful for broader incorporation in marital studies as well. The correlations described in the VSA model could be examined more directly by connecting stress to longitudinal changes in a couple of function parameters. Focusing on adaptation mechanisms gives pertinent characteristics to target for preventative and therapeutic efforts and provides additional insight into how stress affects many aspects of marital dynamics (Navid et al., 2018).

The current study’s findings highlight the significant influence that external stressors have, as well as how they affect how people perceive their partners’ behavior. Regardless of any poor (or favorable) behaviors displayed by the spouse, people under stress may inadvertently (and negatively) have biased opinions of their partner and their relationship. Another significant issue for couples is the idea of stressor salience (Brunstein et al., 1999). All couples will face certain external stresses, even though no two couples will have the same amount or level of stress. Given their detrimental effects, identifying both partners’ sources of stress and appropriate coping mechanisms at the individual and dyad levels are essential subjects when working with couples.

The study contains several limitations that should be considered when evaluating the results. First, reports of behaviors from a single reporter were used to examine behaviors; spouses reported on partners. It would have been more reliable to assess the behavior of many reporters (such as oneself, a partner, and an outside observer). Stress levels were only considered as a composite of a single report, which is also related to assessment. Repeated assessments across several days, months, and years are ideal for determining and assessing stress, but this intensive surveying has significant practical issues.

The marginal significance level for predictors of change rates increased the chance of Type I error. However, given the extremely good relationship beliefs newlyweds report and the strong motivations to sustain these perceptions, data from inhabitants of XYZ state likely provide conservative testing. Finally, while the sample’s nature has some benefits, it also has some drawbacks, especially when generalizing to other groups. Despite these drawbacks, this study offers a unique window into the environmental factors influencing XYZ state couples’ marital functioning trajectory.

Conclusion

According to (Vaez & Juhari, 2017), when discussing the impact of external stress on married couples, take note of how stress may “act as a double-edged sword, raising intimates’ likelihood of encountering adverse marital events while hindering intimates’ capacity to process specific relationship information adaptively”. Cross-sectional and longitudinal research have demonstrated how financial stress and health issues affect a couple’s marital satisfaction, which helps us grasp the intrapersonal aspect of this “double-edged sword.” Studying marital processes, the context in which couples are positioned, and their longitudinal correlations is a viable area for marital research in order to better understand the maintenance and dissolution of these unions. (Wendołowska et al., 2022).

External stressors substantially impact marital satisfaction, and this effect can be particularly pronounced when it comes to financial pressures and health concerns. Financial issues can affect a couple’s relationship by causing tension, worry, and even melancholy. These issues include job loss, debt, and unforeseen spending. Couples who experience these financial difficulties may feel trapped or resentful, impairing communication, reducing intimacy, and lowering overall marital satisfaction. Similarly to that, health problems can have a big impact on how happy a couple is in their marriage. Increased stress and emotional strain brought on by a partner’s illness or accident can also cause financial strain if medical expenses or lost pay become a concern. Furthermore, caring for an ill or injured partner can be physically and emotionally taxing, adding to the relationship’s stress.

Couples can take action to address and manage the effects of financial constraints and health difficulties on their relationship despite these obstacles. Couples, for instance, can collaborate to develop a budget or financial plan that considers their objectives and present financial circumstances. They can also seek advice from financial counselors or consultants who can offer direction and aid. Couples can assist one another emotionally and physically with health concerns while seeking extra options, such as support groups or counseling. Couples should also emphasize their own self-care and stress-reduction techniques to lessen the negative effects of outside pressures on their union.

In conclusion, external stressors considerably impact marital satisfaction, which can be especially pronounced when it comes to financial pressures and health difficulties. However, couples can minimize the effect of outside stressors on their relationship and preserve or even increase their overall marital satisfaction by working together and looking for additional resources and assistance.

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