A marital breakup is a very difficult time anywhere in the world. However, there are always slight differences depending on where you are in the world.
Therefore, the main causes of divorce in the United States may be a little different from what you are used to hear. Would you like to know them to evaluate it by yourself?
If you have come this far, it is because you are interested in knowing why divorce usually happens in the United States.
What are the most common reasons for divorce
1. Marrying too young
If you are one of those who think that young marriages are destined to fail, unfortunately you are right. In fact, the risk of an annulment within five years of marriage is much higher at such young ages.
But before we go any further, we should clarify what exactly is meant by a young marriage. By such a concept we refer, mainly, to weddings between teenagers. In fact, from the age of twenty onwards, marriage dissolutions start to decrease. This clarification is important to avoid confusion, since, in reality, the twenties is a fairly young age.
As you might guess, youth goes poorly with marriage since it is closely related to immaturity. The younger you are, the more likely you are to act impulsively, to pay more attention to other priorities and to devote little effort to a possible reconciliation.
2. Premarital cohabitation
Couples who live together before marriage seem to be more likely to end up getting divorced in the United States.
This cause of divorce probably seems counterintuitive or unreasonable to you, since living together would seem to function more as a test for the relationship itself, so that both parties can see if they are truly compatible before taking the next step.
However, it seems that on more occasions than expected this fact ends up wearing out and damaging the couple, to the point of leading to a definitive separation.
3. Poor communication in the couple
You will not learn anything new if we tell you that communication is a crucial aspect in every marriage. Not being able to talk effectively with your partner is a problem that usually generates a lot of frustration in both parties, as well as constant disagreements and arguments that can become very harmful, and even unsustainable, especially if there are children involved, because they will end up being involved.
Lack of understanding is an obvious cause of divorce anywhere in the world. And the United States, of course, could not be different.
4. Infidelities
Betraying a partner’s trust is always a cause of crisis for the survival of any relationship. And in this sense, few situations are a clearer example of such betrayal than extramarital affairs. What’s more, in some states adultery is even considered a crime.
As you can imagine, infidelities almost never end well. It is true that in many occasions the couple resorts to professional help to redirect their marriage, or even manages to recompose itself with a lot of effort and confidence. But due to the wound it usually leaves on the spouse, this type of divorce usually ends up in court.
5. Economic factors
Money is behind almost everything, so you may have already guessed that it is often behind divorces in the United States as well.
The economic factors associated with marital dissolutions are many and varied: from bad spending habits to large and unattainable financial goals, to the excessive ambition of one of the two spouses.
A fact that usually generates important imbalances in the relationship, which will end in disappointments, conflicts, unfulfillment of the marital expectations, frustrations and, finally, in the so feared separation.
6. Education also has an influence
The issue of education has a direct influence on several of the reasons we have listed above. On the one hand, teenage couples who marry are often poorly educated.
On the other hand, differences in education can also lead to very different jobs and working conditions, which can lead to a money problem.
Be that as it may, there seems to be a clear relationship between educational background and divorce rate: the less education, the higher the number of marital dissolutions.
7. Several of these situations at the same time
So far, we have talked about the specific reasons that lead Americans to a marital separation. However, it is quite common for several of these reasons to occur at the same time in couples who end up getting divorced.
Each one of the reasons listed above add up and intermingle, thus increasing the emotional gap suffered by those affected. Money management affects arguments, which, in turn, affect parenting or the amount of time spouses spend with each other.
When one problem appears, it seems to call for another and so on. And the inevitable conclusion of all this, as you have probably guessed, almost always ends up being a definitive separation.
Professional help for dissolution of marriage
If you live in the United States and you are considering divorce as a real possibility in your life, remember that you can always hire the services of a divorce lawyer to provide you with all the information you need, which will help you streamline the process and make it much simpler.