Three Keys To Happy Marriage: Sex, Commitment, Generosity

Take if from researchers at the University of Virginia’s National Marriage Project: couples with children who are happiest in their marriages are those who give themselves high scores on sexual intimacy, commitment, and generosity. And take another lesson from the New York Times’ Well columnist Tara Parker-Pope, who asks “Is Generosity Better Than Sex?“  No, the answer does not depend on what “is” means. It depends on what “generosity” means, and as Parker-Pope and the National Marriage Project define it, it “generosity” means “the virtue of giving good things to one’s spouse freely and abundantly.” Parker-Pope reports that Marriage Project researchers quizzed men and women on how often they behaved generously toward their partners, how often they expressed affection, and how willing they were to forgive. Turns out that people (especially people with children) with the highest scores on the generosity scale were far more likely to report that they were “very happy” in their marriages. About 50 percent of those with high generosity scores reported being “very happy” together, while only 14 percent with lower generosity scores made the same claim.  claimed to be “very happy,” Read more from the National Marriage Project.