If you see a happy married couple walking down the street, odds are that
they’re heading down a path to divorce. That’s what the figures
from a study done by Brigham Young University of 22,000 married couples
in the U.K.
Their divorce statistics show some interesting results: Only 9 percent
of divorces were from "high-conflict" marriages — those
with unhappiness and plenty of fighting. Thirty-one percent of divorces
claimed "unhappy couples" — unhappiness with little or
no quarreling. The largest percentage — 60 percent — of divorces
came from the "low-conflict" couples — otherwise happy
marriages with little to no fighting.
So why on earth do so many apparently happy couples split up? They happen
mostly because of things coming out of the blue. It could be an affair,
an onset of depression or, depressingly, just someone coming to terms
with the face they’re unhappy in the marriage or with life.
“Remember that these are not people who might be happy with life
but just not with their relationship,” said the study’s author,
Ben Hansen, said. “They are specifically asked about their relationship.
If they were unhappy, secretly or not, there is a box marked unhappy.
They could tick that if they wanted, but they don’t. They tick one
of the happy boxes.”
And if you think it’s just U.K. married couples who have the issues,
think again. A similar study done here found that while only 15 percent
of U.S. couples headed for divorce could be described as high-conflict,
66 percent were low-conflict.
For more:
Divorces That Come Out of the Blue (FamilyStudies.Org)
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