Couples who attend church together more likely to stay together

Church attendance is a key factor in a happy marriage for both Black and white couples, according to new research conducted at U-M.

Previous studies show that issues related to divorce are different for men and women. In this study, Blacks and whites had different perceptions of what makes a marriage happy and the factors related to divorce also were different, says Edna Brown, lead author of the study.

The study examined how religion affected the risk of divorce for Black couples and white couples. Data came from 373 couples that initially were interviewed during their first year of marriage in 1986 as part of the Early Years of Marriage project at U-M. Both spouses were of the same race, and the wife was 35 years old or younger.

In the first year of the study, respondents were asked about the frequency of attending religious services, how often they attended together, their perceptions of how often their spouse attended, the importance of religion in their lives, and about the quality of their marriage.

Wives and husbands who attended religious services together were less likely to divorce regardless of race. Other aspects of religiosity, such as frequency of individual attendance or the importance of religion, were not influential to the risk of divorce, says Brown, an assistant professor of social work at the University of Tennessee, who collaborated on the research while at U-M.

The study's co-authors are Terri Orbuch, a principle research investigator at the Institute for Social Research (ISR) and a research professor at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender; Cara Talaska, a research associate at ISR; and Natasha Brown, a student involved with the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program.

The researchers also looked at the socio-demographic factors of race, education and income. The research indicated that Black wives and husbands were at a higher risk of divorce than whites. Education was a protective factor, however, against divorce for wives, while income was a protective factor for husbands. That is, wives with higher education and husbands with higher income were less likely to divorce.

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