Materialism is Bad for Marriage (Even if You’re Married to a Materialist)

A new study published in the Journal of Couple & Relationship Therapy shows that the more materialistic a marriage, the less happy they’re likely to be—even if both spouses put a priority on money and material goods. From the abstract:

Previous research has shown that spousal materialism is negatively associated with marital satisfaction. However, researchers have yet to determine if this association is due to value differences between spouses or if materialism is problematic even when partners place a similar priority on money and material goods. Using 1,734 married couples, we developed a typology of couple materialism to investigate how congruent and incongruent patterns of materialism between spouses influence marital outcomes. We found that materialism had a negative association with marital quality, even when spouses were unified in their materialistic values. Marriages in which both spouses reported low materialism were better off on several features of marital quality when compared to couples where one or both spouses reported high materialism. Implications are drawn for therapists and financial counselors working with couples dealing with financial strain or conflict related to economic issues.

(Via: io9 )