Boredom at year 7 means dissatisfaction at 16 years of marriage

Apr 18, 2009 06:51 GMT  ·  By

They say routine can be worse than love because one grows so accustomed to living with someone else that it becomes impossible to part ways, no matter how badly things are going between them. While this has never been scientifically attested, a new study has just shown that routine and boredom can singlehandedly kill a marriage, as WebMD can confirm.

Researchers focused on the level of boredom and dissatisfaction that couples presented at two important stages in their marriage, namely at year 7 and 16. The conclusion was that partners who say they’re bored of their relationship in the seventh year of marriage are considerably less likely to say they’re happy with it by the time they reach the sixteenth threshold. Ironically enough, lack of boredom at year 7 does not translate into satisfaction with the relationship at year 16, researchers point out.

“Greater boredom in year seven predicted significantly less satisfaction at year 16. [However] greater satisfaction in year seven did not significantly predict greater boredom in year 16.” researchers write, as cited by the aforementioned publication. Irene Tsapelas of the Stony Brook University in New York believes that the solution out of this would be trying to keep the levels of excitement high by constantly including new activities and challenges in the couple life. In this sense, excitement could promote closeness, which, in turn, would lead to a greater satisfaction in marriage.

“If partners experience excitement from other sources (such as novel and challenging activities) in a shared context, this shared experience can reignite relationship passion by associating the excitement with the relationship. If this model applies outside the laboratory, it has significant theoretical and practical implications.” Tsapelas explains, as per the same source.

Of course, this is not the first time that shared interests and passions are held as the key to a successful relationship and / or marriage. Another recent study, which came up with a precise mathematical model that can predict the failure or rate of success of a marriage also established that partners need to have similar characters in order to form a stable couple. “If both partners are what we call validators – that is they are calm in discussions, have shared experiences and have shared attitudes – their marriage is stable.” Professor James Murray of Oxford University was saying at the time.