The levels of satisfaction between love and arranged marriages: A comparative study

THE LEVELS OF SATISFACTION IN LOVE MARRIAGES VERSUS ARRANGED MARRIAGES Stable and satisfying marriages provide the foundation for cohesive, prosperous societies across time and cultures. Despite the need for marital satisfaction to create a stable home life and the evolution from arranged to love marriages around the world, little research exists on differences in marital satisfaction between love and arranged marriages. The purpose of this quantitative comparative study was to compare arranged and love marriages in terms of passion, intimacy, commitment, and marital satisfaction. Human ecology theory and family development theory provided the theoretical frameworks for the study. The following research questions were the basis for the study: RQ1. Are there differences in passion, intimacy, and commitment between arranged marriages and love marriages? RQ2. Are there differences in marital satisfaction between arranged marriages and love marriages? A sample of 90 married couples (58 arranged marriages and 32 love marriages) were recruited from Collin County in Texas, resulting in a total sample size of 180 individuals. Study variable data were collected using the Marriage Satisfaction Inventory-Revised (Snyder, 1997) and Sternberg’s Triangular Love Scale (Sternberg, 1997) hosted on a PsychData® portal. Mann-Whitney U tests, independent t-tests and generalized linear models were calculated to test study hypotheses. The results of the data analysis determined that there was a significant difference between arranged and love marriages for intimacy, passion, and commitment. In terms of wives, results concluded that there were significant differences in the areas of global distress, affective communication, problem-solving communication, sexual dissatisfaction, and role orientation. Significant differences were found between husbands of both arranged and love marriages in the categories of global distress, affective communication, problem solving communication, sexual dissatisfaction, and family history of distress. Examining the couples together between the two groups of arranged and love marriages, there was also significance reported in the areas of global distress, affective communication, problem solving communication, disagreement about finances, sexual dissatisfaction, role orientation, and family history of distress.