Turns out the phrase “happy wife, happy life” may be true. What makes the most difference for married couples’ general happiness is if the female partner in the relationship is happy, a new study in the Journal of Marriage and Family suggests.
Researchers looked at the lives of 394 couples. At least one member of the couple had to be older than 60.
If the female partner described the marriage as high quality, then the male partner’s life satisfaction went up, even if he reported being unhappy about the marriage itself.
The authors believe the imbalance may be related to how women typically provide “more emotional and practical support to husbands than vice versa,” co-author Deborah Carr said. “So even unhappily married men may receive benefits from the marriage that enhance his overall well-being.”
