Relationships between marital love and psychological wellbeing among married urban Malays

Abstract

In view of the growing number of divorce rates among Malay Muslims in Malaysia, the Seligman (1998), Compton (2001) and Snyder & Lopez (2007) have suggested marital love need to study a more positive aspect of marital relationships becomes crucial. Elsewhere, as one of such factors. Love is seen as a positive force that can promote good marital relationship, buffer against possible socio-economic hardship (Rosnah, 2004) and provide a healthy (Cowan & Cowan, 2005) and supportive family environment (Belsky, Jaffee, Hsieh & Silva, 2001). As such, this study was conducted to explore the relationships between marital love and psychological well being among urban married Malays. Six-hundred married working urban Malays completed a survey consisting of questions covering personal and relationship background and two self-construct measures on subjective meanings of marital love (SMML) and expressions of marital love (EML). Psychological well being was measured using affective balance scale (Bradburn, 1965). Results show that there were some specific relationships between subjective meanings of marital love, expressions of marital love and psychological well-being. Findings are discussed within current psychological theories on love and psychological well-being.