Habitual, Unregulated Media Use and Marital Satisfaction in Recently Married LDS Couples

Abstract

Fifty-seven husband and wife pairs (N = 114) independently completed measures of their own and perceptions of their partner's martial satisfaction and commitment in four domains: satisfaction, investment, quality of alternatives, and attachment. Couples also completed measures of Internet and television use in four domains: deficient self-regulation, self-reactive incentives, habit, and frequency of use. In general, Internet use among wives was negatively associated with marital satisfaction and commitment of both partners. For husbands, Internet self-reactive incentives and habits were positively related to some indicators of marital satisfaction. Television use was generally unrelated to indicators of marital satisfaction or commitment.

Keywords:

• Deficient Self-Regulation
• Internet
• Marital Satisfaction
• Television

Notes

Note. DSR = Deficient self-regulation; SRI = Self-reactive incentives; invest = investment; QA = quality of alternatives; attach = attachment.

Note. QA = Quality of alternatives. Quality of alternatives recoded so that a higher score indicates higher commitment.

The data analyzed by Heaton et al. (1994) indicates that the divorce rate among LDS couples does not differ significantly from national averages. However, Ingoldsby (1989) reported that LDS marriages performed in LDS temples experience a markedly lower rate of divorce (about 6%) than do other groups. Furthermore, Heaton (1987) observed that frequency of church attendance was associated with lower-than-average divorce rates for LDS couples. Although we do not have data on church attendance or the number of marriages in our sample performed in LDS temples, at least one person from each couple in our survey was a student at Brigham Young University, which requires an endorsement from ecclesiastical leaders. The endorsement indicates regular church attendance and living by standards that meet LDS temple marriage eligibility. Therefore, we leave open the possibility that our sample may have a lower divorce rate than the national average.

Frequency of television use was computed by summing self-reported television use on a typical weekday, typical weekend day, and the day before. This number was multiplied by the number of days per week respondents reported viewing television. The result was a rough indicator of hours of television viewed per week, which we divided by seven to estimate the number of hours watched per day.

At least one spouse in each couple was a student. The frequency of television viewed did not differ significantly between students and nonstudents in our sample, but frequency of Internet use did. However, comparisons between students and nonstudents on measures of unregulated media use and marital stability did not impact the results in any consistent pattern. Therefore, differences between students and nonstudents are not reported.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

John J. Davies

John J. Davies is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communications at Brigham Young University.

Brittany Bird

Brittany Bird is undergraduate student in the Department of Communications at Brigham Young University.

Casey Chaffin

Casey Chaffin is undergraduate student in the Department of Communications at Brigham Young University.

Joseph Eldridge

Joseph Eldridge is undergraduate student in the Department of Communications at Brigham Young University.

Angela Hoover

Angela Hoover is undergraduate student in the Department of Communications at Brigham Young University.

David Law

David Law is undergraduate student in the Department of Communications at Brigham Young University.

Jared Munyan

Jared Munyan is undergraduate student in the Department of Communications at Brigham Young University.

Keri Shurtliff

Keri Shurtliff is undergraduate student in the Department of Communications at Brigham Young University.