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Chapter 6

According toWaite and Gallagher,
possible reasons for the increased health
benefits are married people are more
health conscious and the increased
financial benefits of marriage encourage
better health practices.

Myth 2: The keys to long-term marital
success are good luck and romantic love

Luck and romantic love are not related
to long-term marital success.Marital
satisfaction is a key factor in marital
success.Good problem-solving skills and
good communication skills have been
consistently found as factors in marital
satisfaction (Sharlin,Kaslow,&
Hammerschmidt,2000).Commitment

and companionship are both related to

long-term marital success.Additional keys

to marital success include sharing dreams,

handling conflict as it arises,nurturing the

love connection,and repairing damage to

the relationship (Gottman & DeClaire,

2001).

Myth 3: People can’t be expected to stay in

a marriage for a lifetime as they did in the

past because we live so much longer

Thetruthis,thelengthof thetypical

divorce-freemarriagehasn’tchanged

significantlyinthepast50years.While

peoplearelivingalittlelonger,theyarealso

marryinglater.Mostdivorcesoccurinthe

first7yearsof marriage,farshortof a

lifetimeof marriage(Popenoe,2002).

Myth 4: Married people have less satisfying

sex lives, and less sex, than single people

The truth is,most married couples

have much better sex and more of it than

their single counterparts.A national

survey found 43% of married men had

sex twice a week compared with only

26% of single,non-cohabiting men.For

women,39% of those married reported

having sex twice a week compared to 20%

of non-cohabiting single women (Waite &

Gallager,2001).This doesn’t change with

age.For instance,many men and women

Both men and women benefit

about equally from marriage.

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