The Education of Human Affectivity and Sexuality project, which is affiliated with the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) of the University of Navarra, has launched the AMAR project (Antecedents of Marital Adjustment Research), which studies relationship aspects that contribute to successful marriages.

The AMAR study will work with couples that intend to marry soon and involves keeping track of their relationship from engagement and during the first years of marriage through the collection of data at different relationship stages. Each partner will receive a questionnaire that seeks to analyze variables such as communication, conflict resolution, the degree of commitment to the other person, how time and effort are invested in the relationship, and how much priority the couple gives to "us" over its individual members.

Alfonso Osorio, one of the project managers, as well as an ICS research fellow, noted in the Alpha y Omega magazine that, "The team seeks to uncover variables that promote long-term marital happiness. This relationship will be analyzed to see how happy marriages are set apart from others."

In the same interview, Osorio also noted that this research seeks to find the key to "marital satisfaction" because "staying married is important, but being happily married is even more important. There are concrete analyses that reveal factors that help couples stay married and others that reveal factors that contribute to real marital satisfaction. There are ways to measure this through direct and indirect questions, as well as with reliable and serious questionnaires that can even reveal one's degree of satisfaction with the relationship."

A study in time

AMAR is a longitudinal study that intends to gradually introduce new couples over time, which will provide better data on what really works in a relationship and help improve future marriages.

This type of study has great educational value for future marriages because it will describe the conditions that increase the likelihood of success and prevent failure, promoting the incorporation of protective strategies in married life and the avoidance of risk factors that can lead to rupture.