Reasons marriages fail...and other interesting bits of info

[Thinkalot]

Relationships Australia has researched the reasons couples give for splitting up. The top 3:

Lack of time together, lack of understanding, and lack of communication.

 

In previous studies the reasons were different, and included things like, money, overwork, and problems with kids.

 

This suggests a shift in the ways people are viewing their marriage/relationships.

 

Some other interesting stats from the Australian Bureau of Stats:

 

Percentage of people who lived together before marriage in 2002: 73

Average age of first time brides: 27

Average age of first time grooms: 29

 

Number of divorces in 2001: 55,330

 

Oh and something else...US economists recently announced in the Journal of Public Economics, that a loving marriage makes a person as happy as an extra annual income of $139,000.

 

And finally to quote Anne Hollands from Relationships Australia:

"Couples who last the distance do repair work on a regular basis-they reach out to apologise for making mistakes, defuse arguments and let themselves be influenced by each other. It sounds unromantic to detail the work that goes into relationships, but nowhere near as unromantic as separation and divorce".

[PUHLEEEEZE...]

<Oh and something else...US economists recently announced in the Journal of Public Economics, that a loving marriage makes a person as happy as an extra annual income of $139,000...>

 

YIPPEEE!! I'm RICH!! I'm RICH!!!

[Jacksin]

Thinkalot, did the ABS include the number of marriages in 2001. I figure with the success rate only about 50% it must have been around 120 000

 

Jack

[moimeme]

Lack of time together, lack of understanding, and lack of communication.

 

In previous studies the reasons were different, and included things like, money, overwork, and problems with kids.

 

 

Maybe I'm crazy (OK, don't agree SO rapidly ) but it seems to me that the problems listed in the first list would be related to the problems in the second in that if people didn't spend time together or understand each other and communicate over money and work and kids, the results would be the same.

 

I don't really think the problems are different or that people's attitudes have changed; rather that the surveyors asked different questions.

[Thinkalot]

Good point. I guess they are linked. I think the study was trying to show that people expect more from relationships/marriages now...and look closely at the big issues of communication/trust etc, rather than how financially successful or otherwise they may be, or their status in society. But you'r right...the two areas cant really be split.

[brashgal]

Quirky maybe, never crazy...

[ladyjune]

does this mean im on the verge of divorce. my marriage is lacking all three.

[Moose]

<Oh and something else...US economists recently announced in the Journal of Public Economics, that a loving marriage makes a person as happy as an extra annual income of $139,000...>

 

Man, I must be the happiest man alive, I have both and then some!!!!