Vicarious Happiness from Royal Wedding May Not Be So Bad

Who wouldn't want to be Mr. and Mrs. Plate and Mug?
From The Telegraph.

In recent weeks I've had the curious problem of not being able to find enough news to cover. All the news is old news! Apparently broadcast media in general is going through a similar dry spell, so they have turned themselves over to 24/7 coverage of a wedding between a figurehead monarch and a fashion photographer. This may have some unintended positive consequences, however, as The Boston Globe reports.

Boston College psychologist Joseph Tecce says that people watching the happiness of others often feel happiness themselves. He explains, "There's a Freudian theory called identification that says whenever we identify with someone of a higher social standing than we are, we feel good about it." This identification often relieves the stresses of everyday life.

On the other hand, Ronald Siegel of Harvard Medical School warns us that too much identification may be a bad thing. "If you think the only people who matter are those who are famous," he says, "then the wedding may remind you of how much you don't matter, and that will get you down." You should also be careful about dwelling on all the divorces the royals have gone through over the years, especially if you have had a bitter marriage yourself.

But all in all, it may not be so bad if you mark your calendars for a wedding between two people you've never met. Tomorrow, April 29, Prince William weds Kate Middleton! Be there or be slightly less able to enjoy vicarious thrills!

Happiness From Romantic Relationships May Dissipate After Three Years

From Uber Review.

Tracy Clark-Flory of Salon reports on new research that shows the happiness and passion of marriages and other romantic relationships tend to fizzle out after three years. Part of this information comes from a new study suspiciously funded by Warner Brothers, but to avoid the icky feeling of corporate research, the article focuses on a 2007 study that found similar results.

In this 2007 study, researchers interviewed each participant twice with six years between interviews. Some participants were single at the time of the first interview, then found a longterm relationship by the second, while some were already in a relationship, then got married by the second interview, and some were married during both interviews. Results showed that, on average, married people were happier, but that this happiness boost declined after three years. Researchers call this short-term boost the "honeymoon effect."

Kelly Musick, sociologist and one of the researchers on the study, says the decline after the honeymoon effect may be caused by shattered expectations of longterm romance. In other words, after three years, couples learn that marriage is more about doing laundry and other chores than constant romance. Musick is quick to point out, however, that these results are averages, so some couples even improve their happiness and passion over many years.

Happy Adolescence Leads to Happy Adulthood...and Divorce

So now when I look at pics like this, I know around 20%
of these excited kids will be divorced. Thanks science!
From English Subject Centre.

Apparently in keeping with this week's divorce theme, the Vancouver Sun reports that a happy adolescence increases the likelihood of a happy adulthood, but also increases the likelihood of divorce. This information comes from a study in the The Journal of Positive Psychology that analyzed data on 2,776 British citizens born in 1946. The data concerned teacher evaluations of students aged 13 to 15, rating them on their popularity, ease of making friends, energy levels, and overall happiness.

This interesting rating method revealed that around 20% of the kids who scored highly in multiple areas were divorced by age 53, compared to around 16% of the kids who scored poorly, even with no change in the likelihood of marriage. The difference of four percent appears small, but is significant enough to warrant further investigation. (For comparison, the divorce rate in the United States is somewhere around 43%, increasing to around 75% the more marriages a person has.)

The study, carried out by Felicia Huppert of the University of Cambridge and Marcus Richards of Britain's Medical Research Council, says, "The explanation for this is not immediately obvious and warrants further investigation. One possible factor might be that positive children have higher self-esteem or self-efficacy than their peers and are therefore more willing to leave a marriage if it is not meeting their needs."

HOWEVER, before you try to protect teenagers by making them sad, the study goes on to say that the benefits of a happy adolescence outweigh the downsides. Happy teenagers go on to become adults who are more satisfied with their jobs, more social, and 60% less likely to develop mental disorders. Whew!

Divorce or Separation May Be Worse for Child Happiness Than Poverty

Ingmar Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage.
From An opinion on film.

Today The Daily Mail reports on something that you may already suspect:  divorce or separation of parents has a more negative effect on children's life satisfaction than poverty. This information comes from a new survey by the Understanding Society, a British government-funded organization.

Initial findings show that British children rank lower in overall life satisfaction than children in other developed countries. Parental happiness plays a big role in how happy they feel. They also experience a higher prevalence of bullying than children in the United States.

The researchers interviewed 34,500 people, including 2,000 children between 10 and 15 years old. The organization hopes to survey around 100,000 people every year to gain a deeper understanding of issues such as health, crime, finances, and work.

Professor Nick Buck, the director of Understanding Society, says, "We are collecting a much richer set of data than the national census, for instance, and I think this is going to lead to a major change in the way social research is performed, to understand how individual wellbeing and happiness is developed, and how behavior impacts on later outcomes."

The Vast Majority of British Couples Are Happy

Here's what every British wedding should
look like. From the BBC.

Continuing this week's Valentine's theme, this story from United Press International says that almost all British couples are happy, but married couples are even happier. In fact, around 90% of married women and around 93% of married men are happy in their relationship, compared to around 88% cohabiting women and 92% cohabiting men.

This information comes from Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex. Researchers surveyed couples (both members individually) on a 1-to-7 happiness scale, with 1 meaning extremely unhappy and 7 meaning perfect. The survey also found that the happiest couples have been together less than five years, have no children, have an employed man, and both members hold a college degree.

It would be interesting to view similar data--possibly including gay couples--for other countries to see if Britain is unique in this regard. I found this article, which I can't view fully, but which seems to suggest that other countries have similar marriage happiness correlations, especially developed nations. That's good news if you're not British!

Diminished Spending May Help Build Romance

Try not to eat them all at once. From NewsFuze.

Today is Valentine's Day, a day when we give chocolates and roses to each other to commemorate one or more Christian priests/bishops/missionaries who may or may not have performed wedding ceremonies/built a basilica/died anonymously. But before you spend too much on gifts, consider this article from The Sacramento Bee. Apparently a lot of couples find that NOT spending money keeps their relationship strong.

The University of Virginia's National Marriage Project found that around 52% of married Americans (in a "Very Happy Marriage") believe that the Great Recession has deepened their commitment to marriage. Not only that, but around 38% of couples who had been considering divorce have recommitted to marriage because of the lack of money. These results come from a survey of 1,167 married Americans 18 to 45 years old.

So those of you who forgot to buy a Valentine's Day gift, don't worry:  your absent-mindedness will only strengthen your relationship. (That's how this works, right? I hope?) For an especially romantic evening, you can read the actual study, "The Great Recession and Marriage," in PDF format.

Marriage Links Happiness Levels Between Spouses

You'd better like how your fiancée feels, because they'll be
your emotions soon enough! From Public Records Search. 

Are you often in the same mood as your spouse? You're not alone. According to the Calgary Herald, married couples share happiness levels as long as they're together. The University of British Columbia's Christiane Hoppmann led the study of existing self-reported mood data from Seattle, Washington. The data came from 178 married couples between 1956 and 1991.

Compared to data of random pairs of men and women, married couples show a closer link in happiness. Hoppmann says, "Not only did spouses report similar levels of happiness when they entered the study, but when there were changes in happiness in one spouse, that did have an effect on the other spouse as well." These effects may take place because spouses share many of the same experiences and same stressors.

The study does leave room for speculation, however, because it did not look at same-sex marriages or long-term unmarried couples, though Hoppmann theorizes that the results would likely be the same.