Lowering Your Risk of Divorce
By Dr. Jeff Mirus (bio - articles - send a comment) | January 18, 2011 1:43 PM
According to statistics developed by the National Marriage Project, and highlighted very creatively using infographics on the Fast Company design web site, there are six major factors which reduce a couple’s chance of divorce:
- Improve your earning power: Earn more than $50,000 per year, and reduce your chance of divorce by 30%.
- Get a college degree: This will reduce your risk by 25%.
- Have your kids after marrying: Couples who have no children until at least seven months into their marriage have a 24% lower risk of divorce
- Wait until you’re older: If you wait until you are over age 25, you’ll see a similar 24% reduction in risk.
- Encourage your parents to stay together: If they do, your own chances are 14% better.
- Go to church: Couples with a religious affiliation decrease their chances of divorce by 14% too.
All of these factors make sense. Relatively mature religious couples who come from stable families, earn enough to minimize financial pressures, and have the intelligence and self-discipline to both finish college and bear children responsibly are far more likely to have successful marriages. On the other hand, of course, those who exhibit maturity, intelligence and self-discipline in other ways are probably just as likely to endure, though perhaps more difficult to track statistically. And those who combine human maturity with a deep commitment to the spiritual values at the heart of family life, including a persistent openness to grace, are almost sure to succeed, barring unpredictable disorders.
Remember, though, that statistics are potentially very deceiving. First, statistics are based on a study of the past, and the operative pressures and indicators may change somewhat in the future. One is already surprised, for example, that a college education in today’s academic environments does not exercise a negative impact on marital longevity. Second and more important, statistics are not predictive for individual cases. The fact that 90% of people in your health category live until age 92 tells you absolutely nothing about how long you yourself will actually live.
Uncle Jeff says: Work on it, and work hard. Don’t put yourself in a profile and then take your marriage for granted.
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Posted by: jackist7902 -
Jan. 18, 2011 8:36 PM ET USA
The article refers to having a baby more than seven months into the marriage, not having a "pregnancy" more than seven months into the marriage. Presumably, the seven month time period addresses those who marry solely because of a pregnancy.
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Posted by: Jeff Mirus -
Jan. 18, 2011 7:19 PM ET USA
Kman is absolutely correct. I was having a bit of fun with my presentation, as I hope my final paragraphs made clear. Apparently Dermoto1 had no interest in these correlations, but it is useful, I think, to reflect on the suggestion that maturity, financial stability, responsibility and religious commitment are good for marriage -- things that would have been taken for granted when the very young Mary was betrothed to a significantly older and well-established Joseph.
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Posted by: Wolf of Gubbio -
Jan. 18, 2011 6:34 PM ET USA
This is baloney. What has any of this got to do with living a holy lifestyle? Were Joseph and Mary to be compared with these criteria, they wouldn't fare so well. Entertaining surveys like this on CatholicCulture is foolish. One other thing--how does a Catholic couple avoid pregnancy for 7 months without committing a mortal sin?
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Posted by: kman -
Jan. 18, 2011 4:45 PM ET USA
Be careful, you are confusing correlation with causation. For example: There is no proof that getting a degree will drop your risk of divorce. There is proof that those who have degrees divorce less. These concepts are not the same.
