Washington: Increasing levels of debt and bankruptcies are frequently blamed for divorces and conflict within a marriage. But new Brigham Young University research suggests that marital woes that can result from financial ups and downs have as much to do with a couple’s expectations as their pay checks and credit card bills.The first-ever study to examine the impact of materialism on marital satisfaction found that highly materialistic spouses are about 40 percent more likely than non materialistic spouses to experience high levels of financial problems, which consequently harm their marital satisfaction. What’s more, the impact of materialism held true across all income levels.

“For years there has been an emphasis on learning proper saving and budgeting techniques to avoid marital conflict over financial issues,” said Jason Carroll, BYU assistant professor of family life and author of the study in the new issue of the Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal. “But our study found that financial problems have as much to do with how we think about money as they do with how we spend money.”

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