Using the internet can weaken marriages—or help them—depending on resources

Across China, more frequent internet use was linked to lower marital stability overall, but the pattern reversed for people with higher structural resources.

Editorial illustration — not from the study.

In Acta Psychologica, researchers examined how internet use relates to marital stability, using five waves of nationally representative data from China collected between 2015 and 2023 (N = 30,896). They found a negative association on average: more frequent internet use corresponded to lower marital stability.

The key finding is that the relationship was not uniform. The negative association was substantial among people with low Structural Resource Index (SRI) but attenuated to non-significance among those with high SRI. The analysis points to two indirect pathways that move in opposite directions—less perceived fairness related to internet use undermined stability, while improved subjective well-being related to internet use supported stability, with both pathways varying by SRI.

When internet use helps or hurts

Using the internet more frequently was associated with lower marital stability on average. This negative association depended on a person’s Structural Resource Index (SRI): it was substantial among people with low SRI but attenuated to non-significance among those with high SRI. Two indirect pathways emerged: internet use was linked to reduced perceived social fairness, which in turn was linked to lower marital stability (and this negative pathway weakened as SRI increased), while internet use was linked to higher subjective well-being, which in turn was linked to higher marital stability (and this positive pathway strengthened as SRI increased).

The role of digital inequality

The findings suggest that “internet use” does not map to a single relationship outcome for everyone. Instead, the study indicates that differences in structural resources tied to digital inequality shape whether internet use is associated with greater or lower marital stability.

Survey-based associations and caveats

This work is based on statistical analyses of five waves of nationally representative survey data from China (2015–2023, N = 30,896). Because the study examines associations in observational data, it cannot on its own prove that internet use causes changes in marital stability, and the abstract does not describe the specific causal assumptions or controls used. The results also depend on how marital stability, internet use frequency, SRI, social fairness, and subjective well-being were measured in the surveys, which is not detailed in the abstract.

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