Marital Satisfaction and Religiosity: A Comparison of Two Measures of Religiosity

Abstract

The current study compared two measures of religiosity and compared the relationship between religiosity and marital satisfaction. Religiosity was measured using two methods: monthly church attendance and The Shepherd Scale (Bassett et al., 1981). Participants consisted of at 158 married individuals selected from four Christian churches in Burlington County, New Jersey. Results confirm that a relationship exists between Christian religious beliefs and marital satisfaction: a person who has strong, conservative Christian beliefs also has high marital satisfaction. Results also show a correlation between a single-item subjective measure of marital satisfaction and the Marital Satisfaction Inventory-Revised Edition (Snyder, 1997). Beliefs and practices of the Christian faith did not better predict marital satisfaction than attendance at religious functions. Religious beliefs, religious behaviors, or number of times at church each month did not predict marital satisfaction when the Marital Satisfaction Inventory-Revised Edition (Snyder, 1997) was used to assess marital satisfaction but religious behavior predicted marital satisfaction when a single-item, subjective measure of marital satisfaction was used instead. A final finding revealed that personal prayer and time spent in joint prayer are able to predict marital satisfaction regardless of the method used to assess marital satisfaction.