Does age really matter for long lasting marriages, void of spouse abuse?
A new study has found there’s a close relation between age gaps, relationships, marriages, and divorce. According to this new finding, the possibility of long lasting marriages can be easily determined from the age gap between couples.
“Age is just a number”, remains a popular adage for most people who seek positive consolation on age differences, especially with regards to relationships and marriages.
But the reality of age gaps in marriages, as this study reveals, is far from those “white lies” we tell ourselves everyday.
Truth be told, it sounds comfy to hear “age is just a number”, as if it doesn’t mean anything. If this is so, why then do we hear people say: “act your age, not your shoe size”, and, “a man is only as old as the woman he feels”.
The reality about age gaps in marriages does matter a lot, and will remain interesting as this study reveals.
I must add that my arguments in this regard, is not aimed at promoting “an arguable” negative forecasting on marriages but rather, an attempt at proving that this result depends on other variables.
Most Hollywood marriages with wide age gaps seem to have survived the test of time.
According to the study by Andrew Frances and Hugo Mialon from Emory University in Atlanta which surveyed 3000 married participants, there is a correlation between relationship age gaps and how long couples can last in marriages.
Their findings showed the larger the age gap, the greater the chance the relationship will end, and this likelihood goes up incrementally.
So a gap of five years age gap means a couple are 18 per cent more likely to break up than age equals. This goes up to 39 per cent with a 10 year age gap, and 95 per cent with a 20 year gap.
Apparently no more than a year, for which there’s only a three per cent chance of going your separate ways.
This brings us to a very important part of the study. As implied in the analysis, couples who are in the same age bracket seem the most favored for a lasting relationship or marriage. Why is it so?
It is widely believed that experience comes with age, and that young people are mostly rash in behaviors.
The truth about this finding is, keeping a relationship with someone very close to your age, comes with better understanding and increases the chances of sticking together much longer.
Mirror quotes Mialon as admitting to the Indy100 : “It could just be that the types of couples with those characteristics are the types of couples who are, on average, more likely to divorce for other reasons.”
For a Lasting Marriage, Try Marrying Someone Your Own Age.
Even a five-year age difference makes a couple 18 percent more likely to get divorced, compared to a couple born on or around the same year, The Atlantic wrote regarding this argument.
Confusing, right? Your comments are highly welcome.
