Marital Challenges and Marital Satisfaction across Different Stages of Marriage: A Review

Abstract

Marriage is most beautiful among all social relations. Long term marriages go through different stages as the time adds into length of marriage. Larson (2003) explained three distinct stages: i) romantic love, ii) disillusionment and distraction, and iii) dissolution: adjustment with resignation, or adjustment with contentment. The focus of this review article is to discuss the common challenges of marriage and factors associated with marital satisfaction across these stages. It is identified that married couples face problems related to finances, child-care, influence of family members of spouse, sexual issues and unrealistic expectations of spouse. These challenges can be dealt using intrapersonal traits such as positive communication, problem solving skills, sense of gratitude, ability to forgive, high self-esteem, and accepting the partner and interpersonal skills such as showing affection, respect, praise, doing shopping for partner, spending time together, and supporting partner in matters of life. Marital satisfaction can be enhanced by attending premarital and marital counseling.