Introduction
My topic that I chose, was about “Relationships and Marriage.” As this topic is very broad, I have divided this main topic into three smaller subtopics that dealt with was was happening overall. My three subtopics are mental health issues while in a relationship or marriage, how neglection at a young age could impact your overall relationships as you grow up and how being unemployed or close to bankruptcy affects how the relationship goes. There are many different factors that lie under each of these subtopics, that relate directly to the success of a person’s marriage or relationship. Before we begin the discussion on this topic, knowing definitions related to this topic is very important, in order understand the entire situation fully: Mental issues are referred to any disturbance that might be caused by whatever (in this case finance), that might cause mental illnesses to a person, like anxiety (from stress). Financial problems are things that cause problems to families that are related to money, like not having enough money to support your family or not being able to save up due to lack of salary, etc.. Child neglect is when children are not paid any attention to from their parents, and are left feeling isolated and alone resulting in them to keep themselves to themselves and be very anti-social. As well, poverty is when a person or family aren’t making enough money and are unable to support themselves as their income is very low. Every individual must know that when a family is suffering through poverty, not only does it affect the parents but it affects the children as well because the children rely on their parents for food and financial support. Did you know that one in five families are unable to give and provide food on the table every night due to poverty? Families go through many issues due to financial problems, which results in mental stress and other negative issues. For a first, the parents have stress, which negatively affects their mental health, along with their children. They have to overwork themselves in order to be able to put food on the table. As well, the children get neglected, even if it’s not on purpose. The children lack the love and energy the parents are supposed to have and don’t grow up to be strong human beings. Also, due to not having enough money, the families eventually fall into poverty, and are unable to do anything for their families which makes the situation worse. It is also important for society to know that most families are suffering and are not able to easily feed their children like how most of us are. They need to understand the impacts so more of us who are blessed, can donate food and items, which are given to families who are financially unstable. Society needs to become active members in the community, so we can all help one another and help unstable families live on. My thesis is that the success of relationships and marriages rely heavily on the mental health of both partners, what the income of both of the partners are and if they are neglecting their children, whether it be on purpose or not, proving that if both partners don’t make equal contributions to the relationship, it might not work out successfully. My report is split up into different categories that were given, in order to make it as organized as possible.
First, Second and Third Subtopics
My first subtopic is mental health. I found a lot of information based on this subtopic because mental health is a rising issue for people who are alone as more study proves that due to the support of your partner, married people face less mental illnesses than those who are single. The Department of Psychology at Brigham Young University state that “Married individuals had greater satisfaction with life (SWL) and blood pressure dipping than single individuals. High marital quality was associated with lower ABP, lower stress, less depression, and higher SWL.” This proves that when people get married, their lives ease down and they are more relaxed mentally because they have the support of their spouse. Another source, said by Dr. McLaughlin says that “Studies uniformly show that, compared to the unmarried, married people have less morbidity, mortality, mental illness, substance abuse and distress.” When a person feels stressed, and know that they are alone, they feel scared and turn to substance abuse for help. When you’re married, you feel stronger and not alone and whenever faced against struggles, you can turn to your partner for advice and relief. This relates to my thesis because when both partner contribute to the relationship, it makes the chances of it being successful way higher. When partners trust each other with their own stresses and approach problems together, it makes them stronger and unifies them.
My second subtopic is child neglect. Maria Bogdanos, who is an emotional health coach has said, “One can imagine a child coming home from school each day and a parent neglecting to process with them, espousing a “seen but not heard” stance.” In this quote, Maria is describing what it might look like for a child being neglected and the parents that are neglecting the child. She further explains that the child is seen but no one wants to hear anything from them because they simply do not care, and she talks about the emotional effect on the child as it is a very big disadvantage. Since these children do not have any support from anyone from a young age, as they grow up everything chores will seem difficult and to escape from difficulties, they turn to drugs and addictions. This relates to my thesis because when a child is being neglected by both parents, that means that both are not equally contributing to their roles as husband-wife and mother-father.
My last subtopic is poverty. A 2016 study by Harvard researchers found that “men who aren't able to be the main breadwinners in their families are more likely to get divorced than those who are able to earn more than their wives.” If you search poverty and relationships on the internet, almost everywhere you will see that there is a higher chance for men to be divorced or separated from their wives because they either are unemployed or do not earn a lot of money, causing them to fall into poverty. In another article, it was stated from Laurel Steinberg, who is a relationship therapist and a professor of psychology states that “So while employment status is essentially a professional issue, it becomes a marriage issue very quickly.” This talks about that even though good employment isn’t a marriage issue, it does become one factor that quickly affects it. If you don’t have a good job, your chances of marriage are slightly less than someone who has a better job than you. This relates to my thesis because unemployment means that both partners are not equally contributing to the relationship and therefore fights occur and divorces happen. When both contribute, relationships become successful and then marriages become happy. Unemployment is often referred and looked upon as being lazy or uneducated which portrays a bad image of oneself.
Conclusion
The success of relationships which result in happy marriages only occur if both partners contribute equally and are there for each other, causing less mental stress, avoiding child neglect and avoiding poverty. If both partners do not contribute equally, fights may occur resulting in separations and divorces. Mental Illnesses are less likely to occur after marriage because when you have the support of another partner, it helps ease some stress off of people because you are working together. Child neglect mostly occurs when both partners are overworking themselves or if not enough equal contribution is happening and the child is suffering because they are not properly taking their roles as father-mother. In the future, I would like to improve my research by making it more thorough and explaining every small detail more in depth. I would have also liked to seperate my information into a “positive and negative” type of chart to further explain my information.