Marital Happiness: Undergraduate University Students Assess Their Parents\u27 Marriage Regarding Communication, Power, Education, and Religiosity

This study was designed to investigate undergraduate university students\u27 appraisals of their parents\u27 marital happiness, and how those views affect respondents\u27 current attitudes toward marriage. The sample included 1,437 undergraduate students between the years 1970 and 1999. The dependent variable was perceived marital happiness in the family of origin. The independent variables were perceived communication quality, perceived level of egalitarianism, level of education, and perceived religious activity of the respondents \u27 parents as reported by the respondents. Respondents\u27 desire to have a communication situation in their own marriage similar to that of the parents\u27 marriage, and desire to have a power situation in their own marriage similar to that of the parents\u27 marriage was also assessed. The results indicate that respondents saw perceived communication quality as the strongest correlate of perceived marital happiness, and high perceived levels of parental marital happiness were associated with students \u27 desires to have both a power situation and a communication situation in their own marriage similar to that of their parents\u27 marriage. Perceived communication quality yielded a strong correlation with perceived marital happiness Other correlates of perceived marital happiness included perceived level of egalitarianism and perceived religiosity. Parents\u27 level of education correlated negatively with perceived marital happiness. Correlations among predictor variables fail to support the theoretical base used in this study, indicating that couples within the past 30 years do value the socially prescribed processes of communication quality and egalitarianism when evaluating marital happiness