Marriage research: ‘Sliding’ into marriage linked to high divorce rates

Throughout Marriage Week 7th-14th February 2023, Harry Benson, Sorted Columnist and Research Director at the Marriage Foundation shares a series of daily articles about the latest academic research.

Harry writes: Couples who slide into marriage have higher divorce rates than those who decide, according to our survey of 905 ever married adults. It’s all about commitment! Couples who “slide into marriage”, because of family pressure, are up to 50 per cent more likely to divorce than those who marry for love.

Our survey looked at 905 couples who married for the first time after the year 2000 in the era of online dating. They were asked how much they agreed or disagreed with each of twelve reasons for why they might have got married.

Those who said they: “felt they had to marry due to family pressure” i.e. due to social pressure, had a significantly higher probability of divorce at just 34 per cent compared to 23 per cent of couples who did not identify these reasons.

Those who agreed that their marriage “just kind of happened” i.e. slide into it, had a 29 per cent probability of divorce over the duration of the study compared to 22 per cent of those who disagreed.

In contrast, those who were more intentional about their marriage, who agreed that they married “in order to build our life together” i.e. as the cornerstone of life together, were more likely to stay together. They divorced at an overall rate of just 24 per cent compared to 37 per cent among those who did not agree.

Read our report here

Main photo courtesy of Harry Benson