Thankful Marriages: Mindfulness and Gratitude as Predictors of Marital Satisfaction in Greek Couples

Abstract

For many years, marriage has served as one of the most meaningful components in individuals’ lives and marital satisfaction has been a strong predictor of life satisfaction. Given the many documented benefits of happy marriages and the burdens associated with unhappy marriages, it is essential to understand the mechanisms that foster successful marriages. Toward this end, researchers have begun to explore how the personality traits that each spouse brings to the marriage relate to marital quality. For example, over the last two decades, mindfulness and gratitude have become burgeoning topics of inquiry with a large body of evidence linking them to more positive marital outcomes. At the same time, while the institution of marriage and family has reportedly been undergoing dramatic changes in many Western societies, marriage in Greece has allegedly exhibited impressive resilience. However, no empirical research to date has assessed this phenomenon. Thus, this study has two aims: the first is to examine modern Greek marriages and to propose potential explanations for their unusually low divorce rates while the second is to understand whether constructs such as mindfulness and gratitude contribute to marital satisfaction. Thus, 123 Greek married couples (N = 246) recruited through Facebook completed surveys on marital satisfaction, mindfulness, and gratitude. Results suggested that, for both husbands and wives, gratitude is much more relevant than mindfulness to marital satisfaction, although mindfulness moderates this relationship. Several explanations as to why Greek marriages remain intact are offered.