You probably think  “If my partner is unhappy about something, they would tell me,” but in reality, your partner may be struggling to tell you because they don’t know how to articulate their feelings. Partnerships take work and you must do the work to keep your relationship healthy.

Marriage satisfaction surveys help you see your marriage through your partner’s eyes- how they feel about the partnership, and how they feel about you. It highlights potential problems in your marriage and helps you resolve them before they escalate into major issues that can break your relationship.

Let’s explore marriage satisfaction surveys and how to create them with Formplus.

Why Marriage Satisfaction Surveys Matter

So many surveys have cited poor communication as the top reason most marriages fail. Communication is how you set healthy boundaries in your relationships, set realistic expectations, and build intimacy and mutual respect in your partnership. Taking a marriage satisfaction survey pinpoint the areas you need to communicate more clearly with your partner and the next action plan to take to improve your relationship.

Sure, taking a marriage satisfaction survey may seem extreme and a bit mechanical, but it’s the opposite. Taking the survey shows your partner how invested you are in the relationship. It also points out the specific issues you need to resolve, this way you’re not just going in blind, you know exactly what to improve in your marriage and keep it healthy.

Benefits for Couples and Therapists

Let’s see the major benefits of taking a marriage satisfaction survey:

• Improved Communication: the survey helps you to have honest discussions about your partnership- expectations, disappointments, and boundaries. For example, knowing the areas your partner feels appreciated or undervalued shines the light on what you need to improve to show them you care about them.
• Increased Intimacy: Knowing what’s missing is how you find it. Taking the marriage satisfaction survey helps you resolve issues in your marriage creating room for you to understand each other better and build emotional and physical intimacy.
• Enhanced Relationship Satisfaction: Marriages can dissolve into a cold agreement when the people in it don’t like each other anymore, and a major reason for this is that they feel their partner doesn’t care about their happiness. Taking a marriage satisfaction survey ensures you know each other’s needs and provide them to each other so that you can stay happy and satisfied in the marriage.
• Informed Decision-Making: Creating and taking a marriage satisfaction survey ensures you know the pulse of your marriage and the direction to take to improve it. It also shows that you’re constantly working with your partner so they don’t feel neglected and their opinions are respected.

Studies Highlighting the Impact of Marriage Satisfaction on Overall Well-Being

Multiple studies have shown that couples in healthy marriages who are satisfied with each other tend to live fuller lives physically than couples who aren’t. Let’s explore some of these studies:

A. Marital Satisfaction Is Associated With Health in Long-Distance Relationships by Wren Yoder et al

Multiple studies have indicated that marriage satisfaction is connected with a couple’s health but this study took a step further by finding out if it’s the same for long-distance relationships and it’s true. Couples in healthy and happy marriages tend to engage in healthier habits e.g. eating healthier, exercising, going to work regularly, etc than people who aren’t. Turns out distance is not a roadblock to healthy living when the partners are satisfied.

B. The Effect of Marital Satisfaction on the Self-Assessed Depression of Husbands and Wives: Investigating the Moderating Effects of the Number of Children and Neurotic Personality- Le Yang, Ziqi Yang & Jingjing Yang

 This study investigated the relationship between marital satisfaction, self-assessed depression, and other mental well-being factors in marriages. The result showed that marital satisfaction negatively correlates with depression for married couples- if there’s a high level of depression, the marriage satisfaction is very low, and vice versa. The study also showed that this relationship affected women more- when women have lower mental health, the higher the dissatisfaction and strain within the marriage.

Key Components of a Marriage Satisfaction Survey

Here are some key components that should be in your surveys:

• Communication and Connection Questions: these are questions about your thoughts and feelings about your marriage. Such as, “Do you feel your partner listens and understands what you say when having conversations?” or “Do you feel you have enough quality time with your partner?
• Intimacy and Emotional Connection: these are questions about your satisfaction with the intimacy level with your partner. For example, “Do you feel close to your partner?, or “Are you satisfied with your sexual relationship with your partner?
• Conflict resolution: These are questions of how good are handling disagreements and what you do to resolve them e.g. “Are you happy with the way your partner handles different points of view?
• Shared Goals and Values: What are your ideals, and your goals, how are you going to help each other achieve them? For example, “Do you feel that your partner shares the same ideals as you when it comes to raising your children? ” or “Do you feel that your partner is behind you 100% when you decide to undertake a new goal?” or “do you feel that your marriage leaves enough room for you to pursue your dreams?
• Overall Satisfaction: This includes questions about how you and your partner see the overall health and well-being of your relationship. For example, “On a scale of 1-10, how would rate your relationship currently?

How to Create a Marriage Satisfaction Survey

Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating your marriage satisfaction survey with Formplus:

• Go to the marriage satisfaction survey template and click Use template.
• Next, sign up or log in to your account and the form will open.
• Add or edit the form questions to include the financial information you need and click save.
• Customize the form by changing the color palette, and font. You could use your partner’s favorite mug, shoes, etc as the backdrop, or their favorite color for the form.
• Personalize the post-submission message to show your appreciation. You can write a special note to your partner thanking them for filling out the survey.
• Share the survey with your partner or couples in therapy via email, direct form link, or QR code.

Tips for Effective Marriage Satisfaction Surveys

• Stick with Simplicity: The goal of the survey is to help your partner share how they feel about your marriage, it’s not an academic test. There’s absolutely no need to bring out your rarest vocabulary to describe situations and ask questions.
• Keep it safe and comfortable: People are more likely to share when no one is watching over the head ad. It’s better to ask partners to answer the survey separately than going through it late and telling them to do it together. Chances are they wouldn’t answer as sincerely as they would if they did it individually without fear of judgment.
• Follow up with a discussion: After completing the survey, discuss the result with your partner to find out why they answered the way they did and vice versa. This will help you know the next steps to make your marriage healthier.
• See a specialist: If you’re constantly experiencing roadblocks when addressing the issues identified in the survey; it’s high time you saw a qualified marriage counselor. The counselor will help walk your way through difficult situations and in a controlled environment.

Free Template: Marriage Satisfaction Survey

The Formplus marriage satisfaction survey template a is pre-designed template with questions centered around your marriage’s well-being and your partner’s satisfaction with it. You can also customize this template to fit the key areas you want to evaluate in your marriage by adding new sections or editing the existing questions.

Conclusion

Taking marriage satisfaction surveys doesn’t mean you are fishing for problems when there are none; it’s you taking a proactive step to ensure you and your partner have a healthy relationship.

The survey ensures you know the areas where you are doing a good job and where you aren’t, and helps you fix the issue or come to a comprise. So, here is a marriage satisfaction survey template to help you know your partner’s satisfaction and build a healthier marriage.