7 scientifically proven signs of divorce

No one can say with 100% certainty whether a couple will live happily ever after or will eventually divorce. But social scientists have developed a baseline for predicting which couples are most likely to split up — based on how they argue, how they describe their relationship, and their education and employment levels.

According toBusiness Insider,Here are 7 factors that predict divorce:

Marrying as a teenager or after 32

The best time to get married is when you feel ready and when you have found the person you want to spend the rest of your life with. However, according to researchers, couples who marry in their early 20s or in their mid-30s are more likely to divorce. The risk is especially high for teenage couples.

According to research by professorNicholas Wolfinger, University of Utah, after age 32, your divorce rate increases by 5% each year."For most people, their late 20s are the best time to get married,"Wolfinger writes onInstitute for Family Studies.

Another study published in the journalEconomic Inquiry2015 shows that divorce rates among couples increase with the age gap between spouses.

The husband does not have a stable job.

A study by H.arvard published onAmerican Sociological Reviewshows that it is not financial status but the division of labor that affects the likelihood of divorce.

When the researcherAlexandra Killewald looked at marriages that began after 1975 and found that couples in which the husband did not have a full-time job had a 3.3% chance of divorce, while couples in which the husband had a steady job had a 2.5% chance.

However, the wife's employment status did not significantly affect the likelihood of a marriage breaking up. The researchers concluded that the male breadwinner model is still prevalent and affects the stability of marriages.

Not graduated from high school

According to a statistic in the US, the possibility of ending a marriage is lower in people with higher education levels and more than half of the marriages of people who did not finish high school end in divorce while this rate in people with college degrees is only 30%.

Psychologist Eli Finkel suggests that low education may predict low income, which can lead to stress in family life. "It's hard to have a happy marriage when you're struggling to make ends meet, so it's not surprising that divorce is common," he says.

Show contempt for your partner

John Gottman, a psychologist at the University of Washington, calls four behaviors in marriage "the four horsemen of the apocalypse" because they predict the possibility of divorce in frighteningly accurate ways: contempt, criticism, defensiveness, and indifference.

This is also drawn from the research results that Gottman conducted with psychologist Robert Levenson, University ofCalifornia-Berkeley.

Too clingy when newly married

If you don’t hug or hold your spouse’s hand when you first get married, it could be a sign of trouble. But if you’re too attached to each other, it could also be a sign of bad things to come.

PsychologistTed Huston followed 168 couples for 13 years, starting from when they were newlyweds. During the study, Huston and his team conducted numerous interviews with the couples. The interesting finding was: Couples who divorced after seven or more years of marriage were almost always inseparable when they first got married.

ExpertAviva Patz also had similar comments onPsychologyToday: Couples whose marriages begin with romantic bliss are especially prone to separation because the intense flame of love is difficult to maintain.

Defense in conflict

When your spouse tries to talk to you about something difficult, do you turn away or slam the door? If so, that's a red flag.

A 2013 study published in the journalJournal of Marriage and Family, which shows that husbands who engage in this behavior are more likely to be abandoned by their wives. This conclusion is based on a study of 350 newlywed couples living in Michigan.

Meanwhile, a 2014 study found that couples where one partner presses and the other responds with silence are less happy.

Describe the relationship in a negative way

In 1992,Gottman and other researchers at the University of Washington conducted a study in which couples were asked to talk about different aspects of their relationships. By analyzing the conversations, the researchers were able to predict which couples would divorce.

In a study published in 2000 onJournal of Family Psychology, Gottman and colleagues also used this approach and found that couples who expressed disappointment and negativity about their marriage later divorced.