Couples who attend church together are happier than those who do not, new research has found.

According to the research, undertaken by the US-based Institute for Family Studies, fully 78% of couples who state they attend church as a couple described themselves as “extremely happy” compared with 67% of couples who do not attend religious services either as a couple or on an individual basis.

Conducted among 1,600 people aged 18-59, the study, when broken down, offers key findings in relation to church activity among couples.

For example, where only the man in a given relationship attends church, the respective relationship also garnered a 78% “extremely happy” result.  However, where only the woman in the relationship attends, the response dropped to 59%.

According to the Institute for Family Studies: “Clearly, shared attendance and his attendance are linked to higher self-reported relationship quality.”

Acknowledging that “religion is most likely to foster better family outcomes when faith is shared”, the researchers speculate, based on the lower figure around women-only attendance that “perhaps women who are highly religious are more likely to look for spiritual communion with their partners than devout men, and to be disappointed when it is not forthcoming”.

“Maybe solo-attending women are more likely to be seeking religious help with a difficult relationship than are solo-attending men.”

The Institute suggests that, where men devote less time and attention to family life than women through, for example, work commitments, “religious services may be particularly effective in turning the hearts and minds of men towards their partner’s welfare and the relationship more generally”.

Meanwhile, the study also found that couples who pray regularly together also have happier relationships.

“Shared prayer is even more strongly associated with higher relationship quality,” the researchers point out. “Men and women who report praying together frequently (almost once a week or more often) are 17 percentage points more likely to say they are very happy together. Joint prayer is likely to engender a heightened sense of emotional intimacy, communication and reflection about relationship priorities and concerns, and a sense of divine involvement in one’s relationship.”

The Institute for Family Studies research can be found here.