Filipinos happy with their relationships

by Armin P. Adina, Inquirer, Dec 17, 2017

Filipinos are highly satisfied with their personal relationships, a recent study showed.

Results from the Pru Life UK Relationship Index (PRI) released last month showed the Philippines ranked second to Cambodia with a score of 79/100.

Cambodia, which jumped from fourth place in the first study conducted in 2016, received a score of 86/100.

The Philippines maintained its ranking from the previous study and is now tied with Vietnam, which dropped from its top spot in 2016.

Vietnam shed four points.

The online survey covered 4,600 respondents from nine Asian countries and territories, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and China, which trailed with a score of 54/100.

The Philippine leg covered 500 respondents, one of the biggest sample sizes for a country.

In a press conference held at Tomatito at Bonifacio Global City in Taguig, Pru Life UK Philippines chief marketing officer Allan Tumbaga told the Inquirer that the study showed that relationships in the Philippines fulfill 79 percent of the people’s needs and expectations, leaving only a 21-percent “relationship gap.”

Both Cambodia and the Philippines posted high scores in all segments of the study. But the Cambodians registered higher satisfaction when it comes to relationship between parents and their children.

More Cambodians expect the children to take care of their parents compared to Filipinos.

But Filipinos are the most expressive of their love for their partners, with 86 percent of them most likely to tell their significant others they love them, and 90 percent laughing together “on a frequent basis.”

However, Filipino respondents said they hoped their partners would be more responsible (38 percent), attentive (34) and communicative (33).

The Philippine office of the British life insurer invited relationship expert Dr. Margarita Holmes, relationship guru RJ Ledesma and TV host Boy Abunda to share their insights on the results of the study.

Ledesma cited communication as crucial in any relationship. “Talking to all loved ones, not just spouses, is important,” he said.

He also said partners must understand how to communicate with each other. “One talks logically, one talks emotionally,” he pointed out.

For Abunda, honesty is one of the more important things in life. However, he added that “you don’t need to reveal everything.”

Holmes, meanwhile, debunked gender stereotypes.

“There is no such thing as a ‘male brain’ or a ‘female brain’ which we were made to believe. Neuroscientific studies show there is no such thing,” she said.

“Gender is a social construct. And the Philippines is a gender-based society,” Holmes added.

The study revealed that only a third of Filipino men think they do most of the household chores and look after the children, compared to 84 percent of the women.

The PRI also touched on finances.

The study showed that 89 percent of Filipino couples who plan finances together “expect their finances to improve in five years.”

Eighty-seven percent of Filipinos, meanwhile, expect to rely on their personal savings, and only 32 percent expect their children to provide financial support.

Forty-seven percent of Filipinos believe their family would suffer financially if anything happened to them.

Those who share financial plans with each other posted a relationship score of 80/100 in the Philippines.

This means that Filipinos who keep fewer secrets from one another have better relationships.

The PRI also presented the respondents’ projections for the future.

The study showed that Filipinos believe that by 2050, divorce will be socially acceptable (80 percent) and same-sex marriage will be legalized (65).

For 74 percent, over half of the couples living together will not be married by 2050, and more than half of the children will be born to unmarried parents.

However, 70 percent predict that children will have a better future by that time than they do now.

The study also revealed that for a big majority (79 percent) in the countries covered, technological advances made financial planning easier and better, with Cambodia topping the lot at 90 percent.

However, couples in Asia still argue about time spent on digital devices, with the 37 percent in the Philippines saying it affects their relationship, higher than the regional score (29 percent).

Tumbaga said Pru Life UK conducted the study because “we do not want to just provide products to our customers, we also want to make sure that we provide them insights into their relationships.”

“At the end of the day, we’re not just insuring people, we’re building relationships with them,” he added.

Tumbaga said he hoped Filipinos would be more conscious of their relationships after learning of the results of the study. “The overriding message is to communicate—communication between partners, communication between parents and their children. And that will ultimately improve your relationship,” he explained.

He, however, clarified that the study was not intended to be a selling proposition to boost their client base.

“We want to continue to do this to measure, to provide inputs on the relationships,” Tumbaga continued.

The study was conducted from June to July of this year among respondents selected using a structural sampling procedure. The results have a margin-of-error of 4.3 percentage points.