A Continuous Model of Marital Relations with Stochastic Differential Equations

Abstract

Marital relations depend on many factors which can increase the amount of satisfaction or unhappiness in the relation. A large percentage of marriages end up in divorce. While there are many studies about the causes of divorce and how to prevent it, there are very few mathematical models dealing with marital relations. In this paper, we present a continuous model based on the ideas presented by Gottman and coauthors. We show that the type of influence functions that describe the interaction between husband and wife is critical in determining the outcome of a marriage. We also introduce stochasticity into the model to account for the many factors that affect the marriage and that are not easily quantified, such as economic climate, work stress, and family relations. We show that these factors are able to change the equilibrium state of the couple.