14 October 2011

Marriage and the Material Girl/Boy

The LA Times has reported on a study published in the Journal of Couple & Relationship Therapy, "Materialism and Marriage: Couple Profiles of Congruent and Incongruent Spouses," which found that "couples where both spouses are materialistic were worse off on nearly every measure." Says the Times:

"Statistical analysis of the research showed that couples who say money is not important to them score 10% to 15% better on marriage stability and other measures of relationship quality than couples who are openly materialistic.

"The study also found that couples in which only one partner is materialistic fare better than couples in which both partners are materialistic."

Well, they do say that money can't buy happiness, and that's certainly true during a relationship and after its collapse. I see some unusual things as a divorce lawyer, but it's always a surprise when I run into people who are more troubled by the potential damage to their material wealth than the prospect of losing contact with their children; what's not surprising at all is that people with this sort of attitude would have especially fractious marriages.