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Newswise BOWLING GREEN, O.Each year, millions of U.S. couples walk down aisles in churches, temples and mosques to get married. Many only occasionally return to a place of worship together. Does that mean their marriage is devoid of spirituality? Do spiritual dimensions of marriage help or hurt couples unions, especially when they become parents?

A recent study by researchers at Bowling Green State University identified two ways that spirituality helps the marriages of new parents fare better. The results were published in the October 2014 issue of the Journal of Family Psychology.

First, the more spiritual intimacy the couples said they shared, the higher the positivity and the lower the negativity the couples exhibited when they discussed high-conflict topics. Second, viewing their marriage as sacred facilitated more positive marital interactions.

These two spiritual factors motivate couples to manage their conflicts in a kind and collaborative way, said Dr. Annette Mahoney, a professor of psychology at BGSU, who led the study, which was funded by a $1.3 million grant from the Templeton Foundation. The study included analysis of couples videotaped interactions as well as husbands and wives responses to survey instruments.

Couples ratings of their spiritual intimacy were based on how often they revealed their spiritual beliefs, questions and doubts to each other, and listened supportively to each others spiritual disclosures without judgment. It didnt matter whether the spouses were blue-collar employees with high school educations or wealthy professionals with advanced college degreesthe results were the same. The more spiritual intimacy the couples said they shared, the better they handled their top three conflicts.

Spiritual intimacy is very, very important and undeniably a construct that matters, said Mahoney.

Second, couples views on the sanctification of their marriagehow much they perceived their union as having divine significance and characterwas predictive of more positive behavior by the spouses.

It is rare for what people say about the quality of their relationship to predict how they behave when their interactions are directly observed by researchers, Mahoney said, which is why the findings were remarkable.

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New Research Examines Spirituality and Marital Health