THE ROLE OF ADULT ATTACHMENT AND SPIRITUAL WELL-BEING ON WIFE'S HAPPINESS

Abstract

Disharmony in husband and wife relationship often relates to low level of happiness among them. This is pertinent, especially for wives who are considered to carry more domestic chores (and work outside home), and some of which are performed almost in a 24-hour cycle, e.g., raising a child. Previous studies have shown that individual’s adult attachment and their spiritual well-being help couples achieve high level of marital happiness until the end of their lives, especially for wives, w. This study aims to investigate the relations between adult attachment and spiritual well-being on one hand, and wife's happiness on the other. By using previously established scales of adult attachment, spiritual well-being, and subjective happiness, the study collected data from wives who have been married for at least two years in a monogamous marriage agreement. The results show that adult attachment and spiritual well-being are positively related to wife's happiness. In specific, we find that the avoidance-attachment dimension is positively related to happiness, while the anxiety attachment dimension shows no relation to wife's happiness. In the spiritual well-being, religious well-being is found to positively relate to happiness, while existential well-being shows no relation. The findings suggest that by reducing factors related to avoidance-attachment and increasing religious well-being, through routine daily religious activities, may in turn, increase a wife’s happiness.