10 Divorce Myths

The internet is an amazing thing.

There are soooo many tools and insights into marriage support and relationship information. Whether they're all true, ehh. It's up to us to decide.

I found this article called Debunking 10 Divorce Myths.

1. Second marriages are more successful than first marriages because they have learned from problems. FALSE

 2. Living together before marriage is a good way to reduce the chances of eventually divorcing. FALSE- couples who cohabited before marriage have higher divorce rates.

 3. Divorce may cause problems for children who are affected by it, but these problems are not long lasting and the children recover quickly. FALSE- there are many long lasting problems children experience after divorce.

 4.  Having a child together will help a couple to improve their marital satisfaction and prevent a divorce. FALSE- having a child increases stress in a relationship

 5. Following divorce, the woman's standard of living plummets by 73 percent while that of the man's improves by 42 percent. FALSE- women are slightly worse off and men are slightly better off but not as dramatically as these figures.

 6. When parents don't get along, children are better off if their parents divorce than if they stay together. FALSE- [Children] in lower-conflict marriages that end in divorce (2/3 of divorces) were in much worse situations than before the divorce.

7.   Because they are more cautious in entering marital relationships and also have a strong determination to avoid the possibility of divorce, children who grow up in a home broken by divorce tend to have as much success in their own marriages as those from intact homes. FALSE- “according to a recent study, is that children learn about marital commitment or permanence by observing their parents” They are more likely to divorce.

8.  Following divorce, the children involved are better off in step-families than in single-parent families. FALSE- there are benefits to step-families but there are also stresses.

9. Being very unhappy at certain points in a marriage is a good sign that the marriage will eventually end in divorce. FALSE- In a study, 3/5 of formerly unhappily married couples rated their marriages as either "very happy" or "quite happy" several years later after making the decision to stay married.

10.  It is usually men who initiate divorce proceedings. FALSE- 2/3 are initiated by women

   What do you think about this?  I think the most surprising is number 2. Cohabitation is very prominent in our culture. Many young people believe in this myth that cohabitation prevents divorce. There are many, many research studies on this topic. If you are interested in this topic, just let me know and I can write up about it!