Testing the State of Your Union

Source: Sentry Magazine, Vol. 14, No. 3, September 30, 1988.

According to a recent study by the University of New York (at Stoney Brook), the following factors may be regarded as "predictors" of marital failure. If a number of these circumstances exist, then it can be assumed that the marriage will end in divorce.

• You lived together before marriage.
• Before marriage, and in the first 18 months of your marriage, you slapped your partner in anger.
• The male partner frequently refuses to engage in sex.
• You married either before you were 23 or after the age of 25. (Interestingly, marriages in the low to mid-twenties seem to be more stable.)
• You have thought seriously about divorce as an alternative.
• You often yell at your partner in anger.
• One of you has a drinking problem.
• You communicate poorly in your marriage.
• One of you felt uncertainty about your love even before your marriage.

The presence of these "predictors" does not mean that a marriage will end in divorce, but where several exist, a divorce will likely result.