Can genes determine how your married life will fare?

We already know that there are many factors which play a role in how well marriage works. Be it emotional dependency or financial situations, there are multiple components that can affect the way a person's married life functions. However, a new study has found that there is one more component that may play an important role in this and that component is a person's genes.



While previous studies have hinted that genes can play a role in how a person's marriage fares and that oxytocin may also be relevant to social support, as per recent studies, variation in oxytocin functioning can also impact marriage. For the study, researchers evaluated different combinations of the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) which influences how spouses support each other. And this as we know, is crucial in a person's marriage.



“Genes matter when it comes to the quality of marriage, because genes are relevant to who we are as individuals, and characteristics of the individual can impact the marriage,” said Richard Mattson, Associate Professor. “We found that variation at two particular locations on OXTR impacted the observed behaviours of both husbands and wives, and that differences in behaviour across couples had small but cumulative effects on overall evaluations of support, and thus marital quality in general,” added Mattson.



In fact, it was even found that husbands with a particular genotype were less satisfied with the support they were provided from their wives which also meant they were less satisfied with their marital life. As of now, the researchers hope that they can study OXTR enough to use it as a determinant of marital functioning. Stay tuned for more updates.