Beyond Love and Commitment: A Purpose-Centred Marital Resilience Theory of Marital Survival and Failure in Gauteng, South Africa

Marriage remains one of the most important social institutions across cultures and societies, serving as a foundation for family formation, social stability, emotional support, and human development. Despite the enduring significance of marriage, contemporary societies continue to experience increasing rates of marital dissatisfaction, separation, and divorce. Traditional explanations of marital success have largely focused on love, commitment, communication, financial stability, compatibility, and conflict resolution. While these factors remain important, they have proven insufficient in explaining why some couples successfully navigate severe adversity while others fail despite exhibiting similar levels of affection and commitment. Emerging scholarship on resilience suggests that the capacity of couples to withstand, adapt to, and recover from adversity plays a critical role in determining marital outcomes. However, limited attention has been given to the role of shared purpose as a foundational mechanism through which resilience is developed and sustained within marriage. This study develops a Purpose-Centred Marital Resilience Theory (PCMRT) to explain marital survival and failure among married couples in Gauteng Province, South Africa. Guided by Family Resilience Theory, Meaning-Making Theory, Social Exchange Theory, and Systems Theory, the study adopted a pragmatic research philosophy and employed an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design. Quantitative data were collected through structured questionnaires administered to 420 married individuals selected from an estimated population of approximately 85,000 legally married adults residing in Gauteng Province. A total of 391 valid questionnaires were returned and analysed using SPSS Version 29. Qualitative data were subsequently gathered through semi-structured interviews with 25 purposively selected participants representing stable marriages, distressed marriages, separated couples, marriage counsellors, religious leaders, and family practitioners. Quantitative findings were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis, while qualitative data were analysed through thematic analysis. The findings revealed that shared marital purpose significantly predicted marital resilience, marital satisfaction, conflict recovery, emotional commitment, and long-term marital stability. Couples who reported a clearly defined shared purpose demonstrated greater resilience during financial, relational, health, and parenting challenges. Conversely, marriages characterised by purpose ambiguity exhibited significantly higher levels of conflict escalation, emotional disengagement, and relationship instability. Qualitative findings further revealed that purpose functions as a relational anchor that provides direction, meaning, identity, and motivation during periods of adversity. Based on these findings, the study proposes the Purpose-Centred Marital Resilience Theory, which conceptualises marital survival as the outcome of interactions among shared purpose, adaptive resilience mechanisms, relational commitment, and environmental stressors. The study further validates the proposed theoretical model through methodological triangulation involving quantitative and qualitative evidence, thereby strengthening the credibility and applicability of the Purpose-Centred Marital Resilience Theory across diverse marital contexts. The proposed theory achieved strong empirical support, with the regression model explaining 74.2% of the variance in marital survival and stability (R² = .742), indicating substantial predictive power. The study contributes new knowledge by introducing purpose as a central explanatory construct within marital resilience research and offers a novel theoretical framework for understanding marital survival and failure in contemporary societies. The findings provide important implications for marriage counselling, family therapy, religious institutions, policymakers, and relationship education programmes while offering a new theoretical lens for understanding marital survival and failure in contemporary societies. Keywords: Marriage, Marital Resilience, Shared Purpose, Marital Stability, Divorce, Family Resilience, Marital Survival, Gauteng Province, South Africa.