Religious and Role Contributions to the Marital Satisfaction of Evangelical Women

Abstract

The present study examined how Evangelical Christian women’s marital satisfaction is related to religiosity (i.e., religious commitment and sanctification of marriage), role ideology, and role congruence. Societal messages surrounding roles in marriage tend to conflict with conservative Christian messages, and therefore Evangelical women likely experience unique tension while attempting to negotiate roles in their marriages. Two-hundred forty-nine Evangelical Christian women from across the United States were administered a survey containing a measure of religious commitment, two sanctification of marriage scales, a role ideology attitudinal scale, and a role congruence scale. The results indicated that greater levels of religious commitment and sanctification predicted marital satisfaction. Furthermore, sanctification predicted satisfaction above and beyond religious commitment. Women who demonstrated role congruence were found to be more satisfied with their marriages. More egalitarian women were found to experience greater role congruence, though role ideology was not significantly related to marital satisfaction. The Manifestation of God facet of sanctification moderated the relationships between both role ideology and religious commitment, and marital satisfaction. The findings from this study suggest that religion has important implications for the marital satisfaction of Evangelical women, both in itself and through its interaction with role-related variables.