Family and friend relationships are important, but the quality of the marriage matters most, says Dr. Rosie Shrout.
Dr. Rosie Shrout, a social-health psychologist in UBC’s department of psychology, recently wrote an article for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology’s (SPSP) Character & Context Blog.
In the article, Dr. Shrout explores the role that family and friends play in a stable marriage. She highlights her latest research that shows people’s relationships with their spouses and families, but not with their friends, were linked to greater marital stability.
“We followed the same married couples for 16 years and regularly asked about their relationships—with their spouse, their families, and their friends. Across the 16 years, people’s relationships with their spouses and families, but not with their friends, were linked to greater marital stability.”
Dr. Shrout’s research, published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, found that marriages were most stable when people felt more positive about their spouse and relationship, regardless of their family and friendships. Marriages were least stable when both their spousal and family relationships were strained. These findings suggest that a strong, supportive partnership can withstand an unsupportive family, but a distressed marriage becomes more vulnerable when family relationships are also difficult.
In simple terms: A good marriage can protect you from an unsupportive family, but a supportive family can’t fully protect a struggling marriage.
Read Dr. Shrout’s post Can Family and Friends Make or Break a Marriage?, originally published on the SPSP Character & Context Blog.
About Dr. Shrout
Dr. Rose Shrout
Dr. Rosie Shrout is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Director of the Relationships and Health Lab at the University of British Columbia. Her research examines how couples cope with stress in ways that shape their relationships and health. Dr. Shrout’s overarching goals are to identify factors that put couples’ relationships and health at risk and to inform interventions on how couples can grow closer and stronger during turbulent times.
About Character & Context
Character & Context explores the latest findings from research in personality and social psychology. The topics examined span the full range of human experience, such as aggression, romantic attraction, prejudice, emotions, morality, persuasion, friendship, helping, conformity, decision-making, and group interaction.
