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The Impact Of Christianity On Women's Marital Satisfaction

Posted on:2012-12-15Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:Y Y ChenFull Text:PDF
GTID:1117330335965441Subject:Applied Psychology
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The divorce rate in Shanghai has increased sevenfold in the last 20 years, and women initiated 70% of all divorce lawsuits. On the other hand, among Chinese Christians,73.4% were converted after 1993, and 69% of these were female. A study conducted by the author in 2008 (supported by Shanghai Women's Federation) showed that women's relationships with spouses improved after they became Christians. Based on these results, the author tries to gain deeper understanding of the relationships between women, Christianity and marriage through this study.This study uses self-revised questionnaires and existing measurements to assess marital satisfaction, marital quality, intimacy, and conflict levels of Christian women (N=279) and non-Christian women (N=105). The qualitative study is conducted with semi-structured in-depth interviews and analyzed with grounded theory. Women interviewed include 15 Christians and 9 non-Christians in Shanghai.Quantitative study shows the following results:1) Christian women's marital satisfaction is positively correlated with time spent as Christians.2) Educational level and marital satisfaction are negatively correlated for Christian women.3) Christian women's marital satisfaction is significantly higher than that of non-Christian women.4) Christian women are least satisfied in conflict resolution, recreational activities and sexual relationships.Christian women in their first 5 years do not differ from non-Christian women in marital satisfaction. However, after 10 years of being Christians, women showed significant improvement in 6 dimensions of marital satisfaction:gender roles, child upbringing, in-law relationships, money management, conflict resolution, and feeling loved. Qualitative analysis reveals that Christianity impacts women cognitively and also satisfies their deep psychological needs. This positively impacts their marital satisfaction.The Christian belief of God as a "father" and the church as "brothers and sisters" creates a family atmosphere and functions as a group therapy to Christian women. It satisfies women's need of belonging and feeling loved, and sometimes also heals their childhood traumas. This is the most crucial psychological factor that positively impacts Christian women's marital satisfaction.Other sources of marital satisfaction come from the cognitive impact derived from women's family roles as defined in the Bible. Women start to value the couple relationship over the mother-child relationship, and draw boundaries between their nuclear family and family of origin. These changes enhance satisfaction in couple relationships, child upbringing and in-law relationships. Secondly, their life philosophy changes to value the concept of eternal life more than this life, and it affects their monetary values in terms of creating a willingness to take some loss for future rewards. Moreover, their attribution thinking changes to view difficulties as blessings in disguise. These cognitive level changes increase women's capacity in money management and conflict resolution, which indirectly helps their marital satisfaction.Last but not least, Christian women's educational levels correlate negatively with their marital satisfaction; the higher a woman's education, the less marital satisfaction she feels. Women with a college degree and above are less satisfied than women without a college degree in 3 dimensions of marital satisfaction:money management, in-law relationships and house-chore distribution. They are only happier in leisure and recreational activities. Interviews show that when highly educated women with high incomes marry men with less income, they are particularly dissatisfied in money management. This is not due to their financial needs, but women's psychological need to be cared for and protected by spouses. Besides, educated women want to develop their careers but find it difficult to take care of family and children at the same time. If their husbands cannot provide support, women complain about unfair house chore distribution. Educated women usually face higher job stress and need support from their elders for childcare and housework. Therefore, in-law relationships are an unavoidable challenge. Thus, highly educated women show lower satisfaction in in-law relationships and chore distribution. Their higher satisfaction in leisure and recreational activities could be related to their higher financial resources.Educated Christian women's marital satisfaction has also significantly improved after 5 years of the subjects being Christians, and those who were Christians for more than 10 years show another increase in marital satisfaction. The reason why women's marital satisfaction grows with their tenure as Christians is not because the influence of the church is forceful, but because they were gradually changed through constantly seeing models and hearing teachings of Christian doctrine.Comparisons between educated Christian and non-Christian women show the following results:Christian women's marital satisfaction is significantly higher than that of non-Christian women. They are happier than non-Christian women in 3 dimensions:feeling loved, gender roles and child upbringing.Regarding feeling loved, Christian women have more resources for love. In addition to the couples'love in family, they also enjoy God's love and church members'love. These resources expand and strengthen their social support. In terms of gender roles, more Christian women hold "traditional" gender-role ideology than non-Christian women, and there are also more homemakers among Christian women than non-Christian women. The Christian definition about gender roles decrease marital conflicts for women, hence Christian women are happier than non-Christian women in marriage. Regarding child upbringing, Christian women place the couple's relationship above the parent-child relationship, which is in accord with the concept of family therapy. It is a breakthrough and balance with the Chinese "Father-Son Axis" concept, and helps with women's marital satisfaction.However, not every psychological change in women's Christianity is a positive factor in marital satisfaction. Christian women are least satisfied in conflict resolution, recreational activities and sexual relationships. Interviews show that some women suppressed their needs to avoid conflict, due to the Christian teaching of "respecting and submitting to your husband". This does not help with conflict resolution but hurts their intimate relationship. Lower satisfaction with recreational activity could be related to their high involvement with church activities, and hence reduced family and personal recreational time. Lower satisfaction on sexual relationships was not mentioned in the interviews. This may indicate Christians' avoidance on this topic.In summary, this study concludes the impact of Christianity on women's marital satisfaction in 2 aspects:Cognitively, the biblical view provides positive meaning for women's gender roles and helps their adaptation in marriage, thus enhancing women's marital satisfaction in many ways. Psychologically, God as a new caretaker provides women with a new secure attachment, which heals their childhood trauma. At the same time, the social support and sense of belonging offered by the church meetings function as a group therapy to women and increase their marital satisfaction. Therefore, Christian women have higher marital satisfaction than non-Christian women. However, change takes time, so there is a positive correlation between a woman's marital satisfaction and her years spent in the Christian faith. Educated women face higher expectations and work pressures; therefore, Christian women's educational level correlates negatively with their marital satisfaction. Finally, factors contributing to the least satisfaction in Christian women's marriages are conflict avoidance, lack of recreational activity, and sexual relationships.
Keywords/Search Tags:Christian, women, marital satisfaction, marital quality, conflict style, attachment
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