Leisure and Marital Satisfaction

Leisure and Marital Satisfaction

Preliminary research has shown that leisure serves an imperative role in affecting marital quality. Early studies on the subject of leisure and marital satisfaction in intercultural relationships, Sharaievska & Stodolska (2013) branded three sorts of couple leisure and defined each by interaction among partners, and established merged leisure activities had a positive correlation with marital satisfaction. On the reverse, individual events presented adverse effects on the comfort of intercultural marriages. The impact of parallel operations, however, differed with marriage stages and gender. More current studies have shown that relationships between joint, parallel, and individual leisure activities and marital status are not usually unambiguous. The companionship found in leisure does not always present a positive effect on marital satisfaction, given the reason that it depends on different activity preferences of each partner (Sharaievska & Stodolska, 2013). Research has further shown that individual leisure does not have a relationship with matrimonial anguish.

Leisure plays a significant role in defining intercultural and monocultural marital satisfaction. One of the studies that investigated the role of leisure in the quality of intercultural marriages found African American couples and others of American European. Sharaievska & Stodolska (2013) found that the couples from interracial arrangements felt socially excluded during work, leisure, and family activities due to rejection and discriminating from their colleagues and relatives. Unnecessary starring in the section of other recreationists also spurred adverse effects on leisure engagements. The authors described approaches adopted by intercultural couples to promote constructive leisure involvements, such as conducting comprehensive preliminary studies prior to engaging in couple leisure, development of preferences for singular forms of leisure, and pursuing endorsements concerning racism-free joints. Interestingly, leisure activities affect spousal and social support in interracial relationships.

The ensuing factors, such as language barrier or dissimilar communication inferences and social behavior manifested in leisure circumstances. Despite the detrimental effects, leisure also offers the opportunity for developing more solid bonds in interracial marriages compared to monocultural engagements. Participants in previous research, for instance, noted that leisure afforded them the quality time that had significant input in internal support of their interracial unions.

Stress

A variety of studies have validated that different forms of stress, including economic strains or work stress, present a negative effect on marital satisfaction and quality. Some researchers have found that the relationship between marital quality and stress occurs due to communication and matrimonial problems. Stress affects both intercultural and monocultural marriages, primarily due to stress caused by economic, work stress, or illness that will impact both internal and external support factors of marriages (Ledermann, Bodenmann, Rudaz & Bradbury, 2010). External stress that originates from outside the union, such as economic and social problems affect both monocultural and intercultural marriage factors. Likewise, stress that emanates from relationship, such as conflicts or illnesses, causes imbalances in interracial relationships to a greater extent compared to monoracial marriages.

Marital satisfaction among intercultural marriages suffers more effects from internal and external stress compared to monocultural unions. Additionally, studies incorporating both critical life events and daily stress have shown that in the community samples, marital satisfaction among monocultural couples is more negatively associated with microstress than macro activities (Ledermann et al., 2010). Communication behavior in monocultural relationships represents an additional domain that would possibly be sensitive to stress in most intercultural unions. A study completed by Ledermann and colleagues found that work-related stress tends to spill over monoracial intimate relationships than it would happen in intercultural marriages. Stress increases hostility and social withdrawal among married couples, causing spousal breakdowns.