New Expert Survey Reveals The #1 Reason Couples Divorce

So, how can couples divorce-proof their marriages? 65% of experts agree the most effective way is by improving communication, followed by decreasing negativity/criticism. Only about 4% cited more/better sex.

Your best bet? Be proactive before walking down the aisle. Eighty percent of experts agree couples who attend premarital education/counseling are less likely to get divorced than couples that don't.

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"Hopefully the men out there getting married will heed this message! Given a divorced woman and a divorced man, 75% of our experts agree a man will get remarried first," states YourTango CEO Andrea Miller. "This corroborates tons of research and anecdotal evidence that men are more emotionally dependent in a marriage and can benefit significantly by being proactive before saying 'I do.'" 

Additional expert insights:

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• According to the survey, 25-50% of divorces could have been avoided with couples' therapy. However, couples' therapy isn't a cure-all. Rather, 65% of experts say that 25-50% of couples who attend couples therapy during their marriage end up getting divorced anyway.
• 76% of experts polled say that of divorcing couples, most of the time one person—not both—wants the divorce.
• 57% of experts say that less than 25% of divorces are amicable. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that according to 65% of experts polled, less than 25% of people whose marriages end regret the decision to divorce.
• While 65% of experts polled agree that grown children of divorced parents are more likely to get divorced than grown children of married parents, grown kids of divorce aren't deterred; that is, according to 76% of experts polled, grown children of divorced parents just as likely to get married as grown children of married parents.
• When asked whether they expect the divorce rate to go up or down over the next ten years, the experts are split: 37% believe it will go up, 26% say it will go down, and 37% think it will remain the same.

 

Research methodology: Conducted on SurveyMonkey.com, we polled 105 mental health professionals between October 1 and October 7, 2012.