Materialistic couples are more likely to suffer marital problems than those who don’t rank money and possessions as a priority, recent research has found.
According to a study by Brigham Young University, which looked at questionnaires from 1,734 married couples through the RELATE Institute, those who were more materialistic suffered the biggest lows in married life.
The questionnaire asked the couples about their marital satisfaction, conflict patterns, communication and stability and were also asked to rate the question; “Having money and lots of things has never been important to me”.
The study found that non-materialistic couples were 10 to 15% better off in marital satisfaction, stability and conflict than marriages who had at least one spouse who cared highly for possessions and money. The study added that it didn’t make a difference whether the materialistic person was a man or woman
The reasons behind the findings is thought to be that material and money hungry couples make be prone to making bad financial decisions consequently causing stress and clashing on things like debt and lack of funds.
Other reasons could be down to couples focusing more on what they’ve got or what they want to spend money on, than nurturing their relationship.
“They simply don’t give relationships the same priority and attention as non-materialistic spouses,” says researcher Jason Carroll. “We found a general pattern that materialism seems to be harmful to marriage. It’s probably best described as an erosion effect,” Carroll added.
Interestingly, the study’s findings went against the old relationship notion that ‘opposites attract’, as those who had mismatched views on material objects and money, were the happiest.