Recently I wrote about a recent study that found that couples are happier these days then they used to be. This is certainly good news but also curious- as the divorce rate has been slowly rising for three years, or since the official end of the recession. Maybe those who actually stay together are happier- which would not make these two statistics appear incompatible.
Apparently a stronger economy is behind the increase in divorce. After all, lawyers are expensive, dividing assets in half and needing two homes instead of one all require a couple be financially stable with resources to spare. Otherwise they have to tough it out and stay together until they can afford to end the marriage.
According to Jessamyn Schaller of the University of Arizona- a one point increase in the unemployment rate correlates with a 1.7 percent fall in the divorce rate. Researchers from the Universities of Maryland and North Carolina found that recessions are especially likely to stop women with a college degree from leaving their marriages because they simply can’t afford to get by on their own.
There may be a silver lining here. If a couple feels forced to stay and in the process has to confront some issues and learn to communicate more productively- they just might decide to try working on their marriage again- and with the incentive to make their living arrangement tolerable, they could rediscover some of the good feelings that had gotten lost along the way and decide they are better off with than without- regardless of their job status.