Thursday, October 27, 2016

Week 6…Transitions in marriage

Who knew that this was even a thing?  I guess I did, I just didn't know what to call it! The transition to marriage is something that is very important to get right!  Some couples find it smoother than others. I am sure that some of the things that I learned and read about this week would have been very useful to me 25 years ago!  Wow, hindsight is amazing!

Something that I found interesting is ENRICH, an instrument used to assess a marital relationship. Lavee and Olson developed nine dimensions of a relationship in which couples could measure their marital strength.  These dimensions consider the strength of satisfaction with the partner’s:

  •      Personality traits and habits
  •      Amount and kind of communication 
  •      The way conflict is handled
  •      How finances are managed
  •     The amount and kind of leisure activities
  •      Sex
  •       Children and parenting issues
  •      Relationships with family and friends
  •      The role of religion in the couple’s life
I found it very enlightening to look at my marriage and marriage in general, in terms of these dimensions.  We all know that we have strengths and weaknesses in our marriage. However, to be able to break it down like this made me think about what areas we can improve in, more specifically.  I firmly believe that it is necessary to be specific when setting goals and what better to set goals to improve than our marriages?


No comments:

Post a Comment