Research Methodology for Surprising Secrets of Highly Happy Marriages
A Note from Shaunti Feldhahn
The entire survey process was done with the guidance and direction of Dr. Chuck Cowan, the former chief of survey design at the US Census Bureau and the founder of the highly regarded company Analytic Focus. We conducted surveys of 1,304 people (652 married couples). All respondents were anonymous and the spouses never saw each other’s answers so everyone could be completely candid.
We conducted two different types of surveys. The primary survey was nationally representative across all demographic categories and conducted by Decision Analyst, one of the top companies in the world for conducting this type of reliable online survey (www.decisionanalyst.com). It surveyed 508 men and women (254 married couples), and provided a confidence level of 95 percent, plus or minus 4.3 percent. (For more details, see the methodology chapter written by Chuck Cowan.
The second type of surveys were our internal surveys of 796 people (398 couples); these were paper-based, direct-response (keypad), or online surveys in many different marriage-related venues. Since many such arenas tend to be associated with churches, this group had a high percentage of churchgoers. Although most of the results shown here are from the nationally representative survey, in a few cases, under Chuck’s guidance, I did a type of meta-analysis of the results of all the data sets gathered—both the nationally representative and churchgoers’ results together. Those will be referred below as the “combined survey.”
Also, unlike in most of my past books, there is another type of research included. Several of the habits I identified in happy couples intersect with subjects that have been independently studied by other researchers, particularly Dr. Brad Wilcox of the University of Virginia and the National Marriage Project. I was grateful Dr. Wilcox and several other researchers were willing to conduct specialized runs of their survey data for inclusion in this book.