Marital happiness, marital duration, and the U-shaped curve: Evidence froma five-wave panel study

Previous research suggests a U-shaped pattern of marital happiness over the life course, with happiness declining in the early years of marriage and r ising in the later years. Most prior studies have been limited by the use o f cross-sectional data or nonprobability samples. In contrast, the present study is based on data from a national, 17-year, 5-wave panel sample. Using cross-sectional data from the first wave, we replicate the U-shaped relati onship between marial happiness and marital duration. In an analysis based on a fixed-effects pooled time-series model with multiple-wave panel data, we find declines in marital happiness at all marital durations and no suppo rt for an upturn in marital happiness in the later years. The relationship between marital happiness and marital duration is slightly curvilinear, wit h the steepest declines in martial happiness occurring during the earliest and latest years of marriage. When other life-course are controlled, a sign ificant negative effect of marital duration on marital happiness remains. F or most marriage cohorts, marital happiness declined more in the 1980s than in the 1990s, suggesting a period effect. This study provides evidence tha t the U-shaped pattern of marital happiness over the life course is an arti fact of cross-sectional research and is not typical of U.S. marriages.