Couples in Pennsylvania that spent more than $20,000 on their weddings or have different alcohol habits may be more apt to get a divorce than those who spent less on their weddings or have similar drinking patterns. Studies of couples throughout the country have identified these and other factors as predictive of a marriage’s stability.
Women who grew up in religious families are more likely to stay married than those who did not. People who only finished high school or dropped out of college are more likely to get a divorce than those who earned their bachelor’s degrees. The age at which one marries also is significant. Individuals who got married past the age of 32 or in their late teens or early 20s are more likely to have failed marriages than those who married in their late 20s and early 30s.
Extremely attractive individuals and people whose parents got divorced also are more inclined to divorce. In the latter situation, an adopted person’s biological parents’ marriage patterns have more effect than the ones of his or her adoptive parents. When there are at least eight months between the wedding and the birth of the first child, the marriage is more stable. Marriages in which the firstborn child is a girl are more likely to end in divorce. Finally, people who have already gotten divorced are more likely to divorce again than people in first marriages.
Some of these factors can suggest complications that will occur during the divorce as well. For example, a couple that had an expensive wedding may have a lot of assets, leading to a lot of complexities when it comes to the division of property. Someone who is concerned about the alcohol consumption of his or her ex-spouse may not want that parent to have custody of their children. People getting a divorce may want to discuss these and other concerns with an attorney.
