Muristek
Happily married couples live longer than couples who argue regularly. ― Shutterstock pic
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NEW YORK, March 12 ― Is marital happiness the secret to staying youthful? According to a study, couples who share happy moments and who readily show affection to each other live longer and in better health than those who often fight.
Could your spouse be a factor in a longer life? According to an American study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, happy couples live longer than couples who argue regularly.
To reach this conclusion, researchers from the University of Berkeley in the United States followed 154 “middle-aged and older” heterosexual couples in the San Francisco area for 20 years, from 1989 to 2009.
The couples were asked to come to the Berkeley laboratory every five years to be observed and to discuss their relationship and their health (their relationship with tobacco, alcohol, caffeine consumption, sports...). Through filmed discussions and self-reported questionnaires, the researchers analysed the effects of disagreement and moments of positive synchrony on the body.
Happier couples had fewer health issues
The purpose of these interviews was to determine how often these couples shared moments of mutual warmth, joy, closeness and intimacy. The researchers labelled these instances as moments of “positivity resonance” and found that they could be a strong indicator of future health and life expectancy. They were found to be a key ingredient for a healthy, long-lasting relationship.
“We found that spouses in relationships that were high on positivity resonance had milder declines in their health over the next 13 years and were more likely to still be alive after 30 years,” explained Robert Levenson, study author and UC Berkeley professor of psychology. ― ETX Studio