Valentine’s Day is coming up and Richard Swerdlow looks at some recent research on stress in same sex and straight couples.
It's Valentine's Day, that celebration of love and marriage. Now that my husband and I have been married a few years, I have some advice about marriage. And I’m qualified to dole out advice because in 2019 the Journal of Marriage and Family studied 378 married couples — female, male and straight — to investigate emotional distress in different types of marriages. This study concluded male couples had the lowest levels of marital discord.
The study put forward a couple theories about — well — couples and why gay men have successful marriages.
Just being male in a sexist society was one reason. With men still earning a disgraceful average income of 19% more than women, male couples often have less financial stress. And since many male couples are not raising children, money and kids are not reasons to butt heads.
But it wasn't only money and kids. The study concluded two guys communicate more directly and effectively, and no gender roles results in more equal divisions of household labor.