Collectivism, marriage and well-being

The positive relationship between marriage and subjective well-being is a robust finding in the academic field. There is, however, a growing demand for contextualization of this relationship. It is for instance suggested that the influence of marriage on well-being varies across cultures. Although an understanding of these cross-cultural variations is lacking, existing research does provide indications of what cultural trait might play a role in these variations: national collectivism. Since authors remain ambivalent when it comes to pinpointing what role collectivism plays exactly in the well-known relationship between marriage and subjective well-being, this study aims to fill this gap. Based on a thorough review of relevant literature, this study proposes two ways in which the role of collectivism can be understood, to explain why collectivism either strengthens or weakens the well-being-effect of marriage. First, a cultural interpretation based on the normative nature of marriage is proposed based on sociological literature on social norms and conformity. Second, adopting a different theoretical approach, marriage is interpreted as a source of social support, resulting in a structural interpretation of the role of collectivism. The role of collectivism and both proposed interpretations are empirically tested using all available rounds (2002-2012) of the European Social Survey (N = 212,683). Multilevel analyses reveal that the relationship between marriage and well-being is weaker in collectivistic countries, demonstrating the importance of taking cross-cultural variations into account. The analyses also show that neither of the proposed interpretations can sufficiently explain the dampening role of collectivism. Therefore, an alternative interpretation of the findings is offered in the conclusion, to serve as a stepping stone for future research.