It is no secret that the divorce rate in the United States is high. An estimated 40 to 50 percent of American marriages have ended in divorce in today’s age. This does not bode well for a picture of domestic bliss.
But what leads to so many divorces? Is there a way to predict whether or not your marriage is going to fall apart? Multiple studies have tried to determine if there are any predilections to a divorce. Whether or not the results are conclusive is yet to be determined, but there are some psychological commonalities throughout these studies. There are a few characteristics that come up more often in failed marriages.
What are the factors?
Some of these common factors are relatively obvious. Couples who do not share values such as education and religion are generally more likely to split. More highly educated women and men are more likely to have longer marriages. Religious couples were also found to have longer partnerships.
Infidelity is another obvious and common factor that can end a marriage. Contempt is another major factor in divorce. Hostile attitudes such as feelings of disgust, eye-rolling and name-calling are also negative signs for a relationship.
Other factors that were found common in divorce were mental instability, such as anxiety and depression disorders. Couples who married earlier in life were also found to have a greater chance of divorce.
What does it all mean?
It is important to note all these occurrences were due to correlation rather than causation.
There are many other theories, outside of psychology, about how a divorce could be predicted. For example couples who suffer from financial problems are prone to disagreements that could eventually lead to a divorce.
We may never know if there is a sure-fire cause of divorce, though these psychological elements were common in many divorce cases.