What makes you happy? Most think that happiness can be attributed to personal success, great health or the right size jeans. A recent study, however, finds that our happiness or lack of can be tied to our spouses.
The study published in the American Psychological Association’s journal of Developmental Psychology found that our individual happiness depends largely on that of our spouse, at least where long term married couples are concerned.
“What we saw over a long period of time is that if one spouse changed in terms of increasing happiness, the other spouse’s happiness would go up,” says Christiane Hoppmann, professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia and lead author of the study. “And if there was a dip in happiness, this dip would also affect the respective spouse.
The data was taken from the Seattle Longitudinal Study. The study began following more than 6,000 individuals in 1956. It asked about personality, satisfaction with life, and health issues. The data was then reviewed by researchers at UBC, the University of Washington and Penn State. They specifically looked for responses by married couples. They found 178 couples some together as long as 35 years. They then compared the couple’s happiness ratings.
The study determined that happiness waxes and wanes throughout a marriage. When one spouse is upbeat the other tends to be as well, when one is down the other can be too. Ultimately it is not up to us to make our spouse happy. It is up to us to provide a loving, safe secure environment for them to be happy.
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