Study Reveals Key to Marital Bliss

A new study on marital satisfaction by the National Bureau of Economic Research revealed some clues about happy marriages.

It has been a known that married people tend to be healthier and happier than their single peers. Researchers have been trying to shed some light on this phenomenon and find out if it is really the fact that the marriage itself leads to increased happiness, or is it simply because happy people are more inclined to get married.

Business Insider reports a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research says that the key to a happy marriage might be being best friends with your husband or wife. The paper said friendship is an essential element that could give us an explanation for the relationship between marriage and life satisfaction. People who consider their spouse as their best friend reported two times higher life satisfaction than those who do not.

Marriage also seems to help individuals go through rough times in life more easily, especially during middle age, which is known to be one of the "crisis" times in personal well-being. People who are married tend to deal with some of the difficult challenges of life better than their single counterparts. This could be attributed to the unique social support spouses provide for each other while tackling life's hardship.

One of the authors of the study, Shawn Grover from the Canadian Department of Finance, said, "Marriage may be most important when there is that stress in life and when things are going wrong."

Another author of the paper John Helliwell from Vancouver School of Economics stated: "The biggest benefits come in high-stress environments, and people who are married can handle midlife stress better than those who aren't because they have a shared load and shared friendship," The New York Times reported.

Even though the notion of support may seem to be essential for achieving long-lasting relationships that bring happiness, it doesn't seem to be the case for marriages in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, where marriage apparently brings about a decline in happiness, the paper said.