There are many ways to characterize relationships between married couples. The underlying premise of this spousing framework is that the greater the breadth and depth of a couple’s relationship, the more likely that couple will have a happy, long-lasting marriage. The breadth and depth of a marital relationship can be segmented into 3 qualities: partnership, friendship, and lover-ship. These 3 qualities are highlighted below.
The partnership dimension of a marriage is the extent to which couples have shared responsibilities, obligations and
duties. Examples of shared
marriage responsibilities are:
raising children, maintaining a
home, taking care of a pet, financial management, and co-running a family business.
The friendship dimension of a marriage is the extent to which couples enjoy each other’s company. It’s based on platonic attributes such as common interests as well as mutual respect or admiration. One way to assess the level of friendship in a marriage is by considering the extent to which a couple wants to spend their free time together.
The lover-ship dimension of a marriage is the extent to which couples are intimate, affectionate,and romantic with each other. This can be contrasted with the platonic qualities of the friendship dimension.
Now learn how
combinations of these three marriage qualities
characterize four common types of marriages.