The Relationship Among and Between Marital Satisfaction, Religious Faith, and Political Orientation Jill Duba Sauerheber 1 , Aaron W. Hughey 1 , Cheryl Pence Wolf 1 , Bradley Ginn 1 , and Austin Stethen 1 Abstract This study examined the relationship between marital satisfaction, religious faith, and political orientation for 285 married Christian individuals. Participants completed a survey of three instruments, designed to measure one of the four variables. There was a slight positive correlation between marital satisfaction and religious faith and between religious faith and political orientation on conservative issues; there was a slight negative correlation between religious faith and political orientation on liberal issues. There was no significant correlation between marital satisfaction and political orientation. Of the 285 participants, 76 participants were matched; the 38 married couples were further analyzed finding differences between all spousal scores except conservative issues. Additionally, a linear regression supported earlier research that a husband’s strong religious faith predicted their wife’s marital satisfaction. Keywords marital satisfaction, religious faith, political orientation, conservative, liberal Marital satisfaction has been widely studied over the past century. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, research emerged related to the relationship between marital satisfaction and personality characteristics, religion, military service, sexual satisfaction and/or dysfunction, illness and disease, aging, trauma, parenting, and infertility (Hawkes et al., 1956; Wallin, 1957; Wallin & Clark, 1964). One consistent finding in these studies has been that maintenance behaviors, such as engage- ment instead of withdrawal and a general positivity toward their partner and relationship, are positively correlated with marital satisfaction (Duba et al., 2012; Gottman & Silver, 2015). More specifically, research has consistently found a positive relationship between marital satisfaction and religious faith. Couples, where both individuals adhere to the same religious beliefs, tend to be more satisfied despite their particular denomination (David & Stafford, 2015; Dollahite & Lambert, 2007). This could be because of the values religion reinforces such as forgiveness, the rituals couples develop or share within their religion, or the sanctity they perceive marriage in relation to their faith. Along with marital satisfaction, religious faith has also been connected to political orientation. Within the Christian reli- gion, political conservatism is strongly related to religious faith (Lee et al., 2018; Van der Toorn et al., 2017). The religion of political candidates can influence the demographics from whom they draw support; conservatives are more likely to support a religious candidate while liberals are more likely to support secular candidates (Castle et al., 2017). Although there are strong connections between marital satisfaction and religious faith and links between religious faith and political orientation, there is very little research connecting marital satisfaction directly to political orientation. This study explores the existing research connecting marital satisfaction, religious faith, and political orientation of married Christian participants who identify on the spectrum from conservative to liberal. Marital Satisfaction and Religious Faith A positive relationship between marital satisfaction and reli- gion (the extent of one’s beliefs, values, and practices) contin- ues to be supported through research and is consistent across ethnic and racial lines (Perry, 2016); religious faiths including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam (Batson & Shwalb, 2006; Dollahite & Lambert, 2007); older couples (Yorgason, 2015); 1 Department of Counseling and Student Affairs, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY, USA Corresponding Author: Jill Duba Sauerheber, Department of Counseling and Student Affairs, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY 42101, USA. Email: jillduba.sauerheber@wku.edu The Family Journal: Counseling and Therapy for Couples and Families 1-9 ª The Author(s) 2020 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/1066480720939023 journals.sagepub.com/home/tfj