Enrich: 5 Types of Marriages
by Gloria Liven

According to the Enrich couple inventory of questions, researchers identified 5 types of married couples. See also: The Signs & Qualities of a Happy Marriage.

Devitalized Couples
This type of marriage has the lowest of all Enrich scores. The couples are very dissatisfied in their marriages and had considered divorce. The characteristics of these couples were:

- Being younger than average
- Less educated
- Lower status occupations
- Lower incomes
- Husbands frequently had two jobs
- Shorter courtship
- Married recently
- Higher instance of religious or racial differences

Conflicted Couples
This type of marriage had moderately low scores in the Enrich inventory overall, but were higher in religious aspects. Their lowest scores were in the marital relationship areas of conflict resolution and communication. The characteristics of this group was:

- Being younger than average
- Less educated
- Lower status occupations
- Lower incomes
- Husbands frequently had two jobs
- Shorter courtship
- Married recently
- Higher instance of religious differences

Traditional Couples
This group had higher than average scores, and were the most satisfied group in handling children and parenting duties.
Characteristics of this type include:

- Younger marriage, but have been married longer
- Have children
- Religion is important in their marriage
- Higher education
- Higher incomes
- Wives were less likely to be working full-time
- Neither partner had considered divorce
- Majority of couples reported being satisfied

Harmonious Couples
This group had moderately high scores, second to vitalized couples, but their levels of agreement on parenting issues were lower (and this group had the fewest children, often one child).

Characteristics include:
- Older
- Married for a short period of time
- Few children
- Wives tended to work full-time
- Men had lower incomes
- Higher education
- Higher status jobs
- Majority of couples had not considered divorce

Vitalized Couples
This type of marriage has the highest level of satisfaction across all categories. They were very high in marital interaction scores, meaning they were comfortable with their partner's personality, habits, communication, and conflict resolution.

Characteristics include:
- Older
- Married for longer time
- More educated
- HIgher incomes
- Husbands tended to work one job (not two) and be part-time more often

See Also: The Qualities of Happy Couples

External Links:
Researchers identified 5 different types of couples.

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