A scholar said that marital satisfaction was neither better nor worse regardless of whether a couple's religious affiliation was the same or different, compared to non-religious-affiliated couples.
Themed "Indigenization and Discourse Construction in the Study of the Sociology of Religion in the New Era", the 2021 Academic Annual Conference of the Chinese Sociological Association was hosted at Southwest University in Chongqing, from 16 to 18 July.
In the sub-forum of Sociology of Religion in the 2021 conference, hosted by the Chinese Sociological Society held on July 17, Sheng He, a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at Peking University, delivered a lecture entitled “Will a Couple With Different Beliefs Get Along? – The Differences Between Husband and Wife’s Beliefs and Marital Satisfaction”.
“Since the reform and opening up, Christianity has developed rapidly,” He said. “It has also brought about the diversity of beliefs within families. Pluralistic beliefs also bring some contradictions and conflicts. Based on this phenomenon, I raised the issue of how the religious belief combination of Chinese couples will affect their marriage satisfaction.”
His analysis of this issue aimed to answer three main questions: "what is the combination of religious beliefs between the husband and wife in China?", "would the differences in beliefs between husband and wife lead to boredom?", and "were there other significant differences between the husband and wife?"
Mainly referred to the findings of western studies, he stated that western studies found that religious belief was positively correlated with marital harmony, but negatively correlated with negative consequences such as a marital breakdown. Marriages that were religiously homogeneous often led to higher marriage stability, while those which were religiously heterogeneous were often less satisfactory and easier to disintegrate than religiously homogeneous marriages.
He put forward three hypotheses and used quantitative research and a follow-up investigation to carry out further research projects, concluding that most couples in China had no religious beliefs. The proportion of religious heterogeneous marriage was higher than that of religious homogeneous marriage. The trend of different religious affiliations was that one spouse believed while the other did not.
Compared with nonreligious couples, marital satisfaction was neither better nor worse regardless of whether their religious affiliation was the same or different. This effect was not significant for either the husband or wife, this is to say, the study did not find that the difference of religious affiliation between husband and wife significantly affected their marital satisfaction.
When the husband and wife had the same religious practices, the evaluation of their marriage would not be more negative. When one of the spouses engaged in religious practices but the other did not, the individual might be influenced by the religious practice of the spouse. However, this dissatisfaction was directed at the practice of burning incense and worshipping Buddha, and couples often had no objection to the time of spouse’s worship. When both husband and wife had different religious practices, the husband tended to be more dissatisfied, especially when the husband worshipped God and the wife burned incense and worshipped Buddha.
Finally, He summarized, “Different beliefs may lead to couples being tired of seeing each other but other conditions need to be attached to this proposition, such as what religious measurement method is adopted. The majority of people in China have no religious beliefs and the differences between husband and wife’s beliefs may lead to worse marriage evaluation. China performs differently in this respect depending on the combination of the religious practices of each spouse.”
7月17日，在宗教与生活世界讲座中，北京大学社会学系博士生盛禾分享了题为“信仰不同会相看两厌吗？——夫妻信仰的差异与婚姻的满意度”的讲座。
“改革开放以来，基督教发展非常的迅猛，”盛禾博士分享说：“也带来了家庭内部信仰的多元化。多元的信仰也带来了一定的矛盾和冲突。基于这样的现象，我提出中国夫妻的宗教信仰组合会对婚姻满意度产生怎样的影响。”
盛禾博士从中国夫妻宗教信仰的组合是怎样的、夫妻信仰的差异是否会导致想看两厌、影响在丈夫和妻子之前是否存在差异等三个方面来解析，并参考西方研究提供的解答。
西方研究发现宗教信仰与婚姻和谐是呈正相关的，而与婚姻破裂等负面后果是呈负相关的。宗教同质婚往往会带来更高的婚姻稳定性，而相反宗教异质婚往往不那么令人满意，相比宗教同质婚更加容易解体。
盛禾博士提出了三个假设，并使用定量研究、追踪调查等来进行研究课题，主要发现中国绝大部分夫妻是没有宗教信仰的。宗教异质婚的比例均高于宗教同质婚，宗教归属相异的主流是夫妻一方信，而一方不信。
与夫妻不信仰宗教组合相比，无论夫妻宗教归属相同还是相异起婚姻满意度都没有更好或者更差，且这一效应无论是对丈夫还是对妻子都不显著，即研究并没有发现夫妻宗教归属的差异显著影响婚姻满意度。
当夫妻宗教实践相同时，夫妻双方对婚姻的评价并不会更加负面。当夫妻中一个有宗教实践而另一个没有时，个体可能会受到配偶宗教实践的影响。但是，这种不满针对烧香拜佛实践，夫妻往往对配偶礼拜的时间未表示异议。当夫妻双方均有宗教实践且类型相异时，丈夫表现得更为不满，特别是丈夫礼拜妻子烧香拜佛的时候。
最后盛禾博士总结到：“信仰不同可能会导致夫妻相看两厌，但这一命题的城里需要附加其他条件，例如采用了什么宗教测量方式。中国无宗教信仰者占绝大多数，夫妻信仰的差异可能导致更差的婚姻评价。中国在宗教性测量的多个维度表现不一。”
宗教社会学者讲座分享：信仰不同会相看两厌吗？夫妻信仰的差异与婚姻的满意度
A scholar said that marital satisfaction was neither better nor worse regardless of whether a couple's religious affiliation was the same or different, compared to non-religious-affiliated couples.
Themed "Indigenization and Discourse Construction in the Study of the Sociology of Religion in the New Era", the 2021 Academic Annual Conference of the Chinese Sociological Association was hosted at Southwest University in Chongqing, from 16 to 18 July.
In the sub-forum of Sociology of Religion in the 2021 conference, hosted by the Chinese Sociological Society held on July 17, Sheng He, a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at Peking University, delivered a lecture entitled “Will a Couple With Different Beliefs Get Along? – The Differences Between Husband and Wife’s Beliefs and Marital Satisfaction”.
“Since the reform and opening up, Christianity has developed rapidly,” He said. “It has also brought about the diversity of beliefs within families. Pluralistic beliefs also bring some contradictions and conflicts. Based on this phenomenon, I raised the issue of how the religious belief combination of Chinese couples will affect their marriage satisfaction.”
His analysis of this issue aimed to answer three main questions: "what is the combination of religious beliefs between the husband and wife in China?", "would the differences in beliefs between husband and wife lead to boredom?", and "were there other significant differences between the husband and wife?"
Mainly referred to the findings of western studies, he stated that western studies found that religious belief was positively correlated with marital harmony, but negatively correlated with negative consequences such as a marital breakdown. Marriages that were religiously homogeneous often led to higher marriage stability, while those which were religiously heterogeneous were often less satisfactory and easier to disintegrate than religiously homogeneous marriages.
He put forward three hypotheses and used quantitative research and a follow-up investigation to carry out further research projects, concluding that most couples in China had no religious beliefs. The proportion of religious heterogeneous marriage was higher than that of religious homogeneous marriage. The trend of different religious affiliations was that one spouse believed while the other did not.
Compared with nonreligious couples, marital satisfaction was neither better nor worse regardless of whether their religious affiliation was the same or different. This effect was not significant for either the husband or wife, this is to say, the study did not find that the difference of religious affiliation between husband and wife significantly affected their marital satisfaction.
When the husband and wife had the same religious practices, the evaluation of their marriage would not be more negative. When one of the spouses engaged in religious practices but the other did not, the individual might be influenced by the religious practice of the spouse. However, this dissatisfaction was directed at the practice of burning incense and worshipping Buddha, and couples often had no objection to the time of spouse’s worship. When both husband and wife had different religious practices, the husband tended to be more dissatisfied, especially when the husband worshipped God and the wife burned incense and worshipped Buddha.
Finally, He summarized, “Different beliefs may lead to couples being tired of seeing each other but other conditions need to be attached to this proposition, such as what religious measurement method is adopted. The majority of people in China have no religious beliefs and the differences between husband and wife’s beliefs may lead to worse marriage evaluation. China performs differently in this respect depending on the combination of the religious practices of each spouse.”
Marital Satisfaction Irrelevant to Whether a Couple Share the Same or Different Faith, Says Scholar
