Entering marriage without children results in positive marital outcomes according to study
Divorce Study Reveals Surprsing Data on Couples who had a Child Before Getting Married
There is one factor that seems to stand out in divorce cases; in fact, it makes it twice as likelythat a married couple might choose to call it quits. That factor? Couples who had a child before getting married.
A study conducted in 2020 and published by the Journal of Family Psychology found that couples with who had a child prior to marriage got divorced at a rate of 19.1%, as compared to those who entered marriage without a child (9.5%). That’s almost double the rate of divorces!
With both marriage rates and divorce rates down, and with more couples in the United States entering marriages with a child together already, researchers with the American Psychology Association wanted to see how those relationships fared against newlyweds without children in the mix.
“Among couples who entered marriage with a shared biological child (premarital parents), satisfaction levels were lower and communication was less effective, less positive, and more negative than couples entering marriage without children,” the study said.