Maria Emilia Yamamoto

Across the world, millions of couples get married each year. One of the strongest predictors of whether partners will remain in their relationship is their reported satisfaction. Marital satisfaction is commonly found to be a key predictor of both individual and relational well-being. Despite its importance in predicting relationship longevity, there are relatively few empirical research studies examining predictors of marital satisfaction outside of a Western context. To address this gap in the literature and complete the existing knowledge about global predictors of marital satisfaction, we used an open-access database of self-reported assessments of self-reported marital satisfaction with data from 7178 participants representing 33 different countries. The results showed that sex, age, religiosity, economic status, education, and cultural values were related, to various extents, to marital satisfaction across cultures. However, marriage duration, number of children, and gross domestic product (GDP) were not found to be predictors of marital satisfaction for countries represented in this sample. While 96% of the variance of marital satisfaction was attributed to individual factors, only 4% was associated with countries. Together, the results show that individual differences have a larger influence on marital satisfaction compared to the country of origin. Findings are discussed in terms of the advantages of conducting studies on large cross-cultural samples.

Based on evolutionary theories, this study analyzes reasons for sharing and retention and the association of these reasons according to age and the presence of conduct disorder symptoms in children. Therefore, the children participated in a prosocial activity, in which they had to decide if they would like to share a prize with his/her classroom best friend. Finally, the experimenter asked them to explain the reasons for his/her decision. The results showed that children considered factors such as reciprocity probability, sharing cost, benefit to the recipient, moral justification and kinship. Furthermore, the conduct disorder symptoms group showed a weak association to social issues and younger children assign greater cost on sharing the prize, compared to older ones. It is possible to understand the reasons provided by the children in the light of evolutionary theories on cooperation, altruism and generosity.