Question

• Research shows that the majority of middle-aged couples typically see an increase in their marital satisfaction during middle adulthood. Based on your own personal observations, do you agree or disagree with this research? If you agree, why do you think that we see this increase? Be sure to explain your answer.

Answer 1

Middle adulthood usually ranges from 20 year of age to 40 years of age. This period involves a lot of important decisions such as career path, life partner, shelter as well as children. According to my observation and perception, marital satisfaction during middle adulthood increases in the middle period i.e., during 30-35 years of age but then tends to decrease a bit. During the period of 30 to 35, the husband and wife are exploring each other both psychologically and physically. They are knowing about those little perfections and imperfections of each other which only gets revealed by staying together. They both now have someone to cuddle with after coming back home after a hectic work schedule. They are enjoying the 'we' times and visiting places together. According to Eric Erickson, they have gained the psychosocial knowledge of love and are moving towards the next stages. They also tend to go for bringing a new member into their family and try for children. When this new child arrives it makes their marriage complete and their marital satisfaction rises to an extent. At the last years of this period, this couple gets tired. They both are so much indulged and concerned with their child that they slowly forgets to give time to themselves. The physical intimacy fades away and they get drifted apart. Work pressure increases as they both think about keeping some resources for their child, they knows that they need to earn for their child and thus focuses on earning. Slowly, they are left with minimal quality time for each other and the spark starts to fade.

Being said all of that, there are exceptions. Various couples have managed to increased their satisfaction or maintain their marital spark in these later ages of middle adulthood. There are also couples who have never experienced any increase of satisfaction in their middle adulthood. Thus, these couple should try to give each other time just as they give time to the new born. The new born should obviously be the first and utmost priority but that doesn't mean that the other half doesn't matter. It must always be understood that a happy marital relationship between parents influence the mental health of their children. Another thing I want to say to children or adolescence reading this is that, I hope you understand how much your parents have sacrificed for your betterment. I know there are exceptions but still its the same in most cases.