When couples in Georgia get married, they often have hearts full of happiness, hope, and excitement. Prevailing wisdom says that these feelings will soon wear off and that marital happiness will decline as the years go by. New research, though, is calling this idea into question.
Instead of showing that dissatisfaction is inevitable in marriage as the years go by, it seems that it is actually quite common for spouses to feel high levels of marital satisfaction many years after getting married. This has even proven to be the case in studies where couples in disadvantaged economic situations were involved.
In one study, couples who lived in low-income neighborhoods and were recently married were contacted several times over the course of five years. At first, the couples were put in categories that either showed high, moderate, or low marital satisfaction at the beginning of their marriage based on their responses to the questionnaire that measured marital satisfaction.
The results may be surprising to some. Only the individuals who were initially rated to have low marital satisfaction still had low marital satisfaction as the years passed. Satisfaction rates were most likely to decline for wives in this category. However, individuals who at first were moderately or highly satisfied with their marriage were still experiencing moderate or high satisfaction rates later on.
Individuals who have come to a point in their marriage where they feel like divorce is the only option may have questions about family law. A family law attorney may be able to provide their client assistance in things like child custody, asset valuation, and other practical issues that arise during the divorce process. If necessary, the attorney may be able to represent their client in divorce proceedings and argue for the client’s fitness as a parent in child custody cases.