In love? It's not
enough to keep a marriage |
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SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) – Living happily ever after
needn't only be for fairy tales. Australian researchers have
identified what it takes to keep a couple together, and it's a lot
more than just being in love. |
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The study, entitled "
What's Love Got to Do With It," tracked nearly 2,500 couples
-- married or living together -- from 2001 to 2007 to identify
factors associated with those who remained together compared with
those who divorced or separated. |
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It found that a husband who is nine or more years
older than his wife is twice as likely to get divorced, as are
husbands who get married before they turn 25. |
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Children also influence the longevity of a
marriage or relationship, with one-fifth of couples who have kids
before marriage -- either from a previous relationship or in the
same relationship -- having separated compared to just nine percent
of couples without children born before
marriage. |
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Women who want children much more than their
partners are also more likely to get a divorce. |
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A couple's parents also have a role to play in
their own relationship, with the study showing some 16 percent of
men and women whose parents ever separated or divorced experienced
marital separation themselves compared to 10 percent for those
whose parents did not separate. |
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Also, partners who are on their second or third
marriage are 90 percent more likely to separate than spouses who
are both in their first marriage. |
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Not surprisingly, money also plays a role, with up
to 16 percent of respondents who indicated they were poor or where
the husband -- not the wife -- was unemployed saying they had
separated, compared with only nine percent of couples with healthy
finances. |
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And couples where one partner, and not the other,
smokes are also more likely to have a relationship that ends in
failure. |