Divorce: A Harvard Study Says....

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Divorce: A Harvard Study Says This Can Crush Your Marriage

There are so many factors that can affect the status of a marriage or relationship and so many things that are simply out of a couple’s control that divorce has become rather common. Though divorce rates have been slowing down over the past several years, people are still doing what they can to avoid it — be it marrying the right person, waiting until the right age, or deferring until financial security is solidified.

All of those things may help you avoid a divorce, but we now have even more insight into what can make an otherwise strong union fracture. And it has more to do with the economy than with Tinder profiles, Facebook flirting, or too much time at the bar or in front of the Xbox.

According to a study published in American Sociological Review, the biggest factor leading to divorce is the husband’s job status. Harvard researcher Alexandra Killewald crunched the numbers and found that men who didn’t have jobs, or who had been out of work for a long time had a statistically higher chance of getting divorced in any given year, compared to those with stable careers.

Many couples fight about money, and that is often a leading factor in divorce proceedings. But this study goes a little deeper and adds another layer of complexity to those financial issues. Per Killewald’s study, men without jobs increase their odds of divorce by roughly 30%.

“It is possible that husbands’ less than fulltime employment is associated with marital disruption more strongly than wives’, not because of gendered interpretations of lack of full-time employment, but because husbands’ part-time employment or nonemployment is more likely to be involuntary,” the study says. “Involuntary nonemployment may negatively affect marriages more strongly than voluntary nonemployment.”

In other words, it’s not just being out of work; it’s being fired or laid off, and not being able to find a job.

But what you really need to know is that there was a clear correlation with employment status and divorce rates.

What does this mean for you and your relationship? It might not mean anything — each and every marriage and relationship is different. But we’ve known for a long time that many marriages fail due to financial problems, and the employment status of the husband clearly plays into that.

And perhaps most importantly, there are innumerable other factors that can lead to divorce that aren’t necessarily taken into account by this study. Cultural differences, religion, children — a marriage can be wrecked by any number of things, not merely the fact that someone loses their job. But a connection exists, according to Killewald’s work, and if you want to stay out of divorce court, you should first try to stay out of the unemployment office.