A research group in the BYU School of Family Life recently conducted a study seeking to understand healthy marriage relationships. The project surveyed 100 recently married couples at BYU throughout their first 6 months of marriage. Rylee Jensen, a graduate student involved in the study, explained, “Our goal was to find what factors lead to greater happiness in marriage. We looked at all sorts of things, including age, returned missionary status, use of pet names, and what temple the couple was sealed in.” As the team looked for correlations between these factors, there was one result that stood out. Couples consistently and overwhelmingly reported feeling closer to each other after knowing each other for about 5 months.

“It was incredible!” Jensen said. “Even when we surveyed husbands and wives separately, the results were the same. It seems like knowing your spouse for longer actually helps you know them better.”

McHailey Hansen, a BYU student who has been married for 2 months, agrees that she has seen this happen in her own marriage. She and her husband, Kelby, dated for 4 months before they got married. McHailey recently posted on Instagram “I didn’t think I could love this man any more than I already did. Marriage is the best! Happy 6 months babe!”

As the study wraps up, the group is looking forward to future work. Jensen shared that her next project will survey couples who have been dating for 5-10 months without getting engaged. “I’m not expecting to see the same results in this population, since obviously you would get married if the relationship was going that well after 5 months. But I’m hoping to learn something about the unhealthy habits that prevent couples from getting married in a reasonable amount of time.”