Articles Posted in Divorce

If your parents are divorced, you are at least 40 percent more likely to get divorced than if they are still married. Moreover, if your parents remarried new spouses after divorcing, you are 91 percent more likely to get divorced. Divorce Magazinepublisher Dan Couvrette attributes these statistics to a certain mindset held by children of divorcees – being a witness to your parents’ divorce creates an ambivalence regarding commitment in today’s “disposable society.” Therefore, in the minds of children of divorcees, it is easier to divorce and start over in a new marriage than it is to fix the currently troubled marriage.

According to the National Marriage Project’s “State of Our Unions” Report for 2009, if you argue with your spouse about finances once per week, your marriage is 30 percent more likely to end in divorce than if you argue with your spouse about finances more infrequently. This report also found that couples with no assets at the beginning of a three-year period are 70 percent more likely to divorce by the end of the three-year period than couples who start with $10,000 in assets. This is because most divorce risk factors (such as age or education level) correlate with poverty.

According to the National Vital Statistics Report of 2003, if you live in a red state (Republican-leaning), you are 27 percent more likely to get divorced than those who reside in a blue state (Democrat-leaning). The theory behind this statistic is that red state couples tend to traditionally marry younger than blue state couples – and the younger the couple, the more at-risk the marriage is. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the states that perform the median youngest marriages are Utah, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Oklahoma.

If you are a married American, your marriage is between 40 and 50 percent likely to end in divorce. Although the national divorce rate has steadily dropped since peaking at 50 percent in the 1980s, the prevalent public opinion is still that half of all marriages end in divorce. According to The National Marriage Project’s “State of Our Unions” Report for 2009, modern marriages are getting more and more resilient because people are getting better and more careful about picking their significant others.

According to a recent article in The Daily Beast, there are quite a few ways to predict whether a marriage is likely to end in divorce, including details as minor as smoking habits of spouses. Researchers who studied marriage success rates across the country have found 15 of the top ways to gauge whether a marriage will stand the test of time. Obviously, nobody can predict the future. But, this is some food for thought.

According to a recent report in Men’s Health magazine, couples living in Charlotte are among the most likely to be doomed to divorce (#6 Nationally). The report, which ranked the top 100 U.S. cities with the highest rates of divorce, considered multiple factors, including: the rate of failed marriages, the stringency of state divorce laws, the percentage of the population who had divorced, and the number of licensed marriage and family therapists in the cities.

Divorce rates were highest in Cheyenne (Wyoming), Las Vegas, Nevada, and Billings (Montana), followed closely by Reno, Little Rock, Charlotte, and Tulsa. Divorces were least likely to occur in two southern cities: Columbia, South Carolina and El Paso, Texas. However, Riverside, California and Providence, Rhode Island, did not fall far behind in the rankings of the top cities of marital bliss.

According to statistics from 2007, which was the last year for which divorce ratios were calculated, the states of Nevada, Arkansas, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Wyoming have the highest overall divorce rates in the country.

As recently reported by MSNBC, the traditional “how we met” stories told by couples may be an accurate predictor of whether marital strife lies ahead. Studies show that every couple’s back story reveals a great deal about the present state of their relationship, depending on how each individual spouse tells the story.

Spouses who are in happy marriages often recalled the earlier years of their relationship fondly and nostalgically, even when the actual circumstances of the marriage were not happy, such as when the couple was struggling financially. Conversely, unhappy couples tended to recall their past times together negatively, regardless of whether the circumstances of the early years were positive.

Researchers indicate that “how we met” stories are clearly predictive of future behavior because couples’ perceptions shift when they become dissatisfied with their marriages. Those who are happy in their relationships tend to remember the earlier years with the same optimism, whereas those who are in a current state of discontent find themselves more easily recalling the negative aspects of the earlier years, rather than the good times.

As recently reported by The Washington Post, some married couples are now deciding to wait out the economic downturn rather than suffer the financial consequences of divorce. Alternatively, many spouses who desire to go their separate ways are turning to different options, such as living together while considering themselves technically separated. This, of course, raises a legal issue of whether the spouses are “separated” under the law.

Couples who initiate divorce proceedings during these tough economic times are faced with the traditional legal, household, and support expenses; however, those who have been hit hard by the economic downturn are finding it increasingly difficult to divide into two households. This inability to pay the expenses of maintaining two households translates into the unfortunate reality that many couples face today: staying in an unhappy marriage in order to avoid greater financial stress and complications.

Although studies indicate that the national divorce rate has decreased slightly in the past few years, this new information indicates that more couples may be staying together simply because they cannot afford to be apart.