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.
Does Entering Marriage Without Children Result In More Negative Marital Outcomes?
The sample looked at 431 first-married, lower income couples during the first four and a half years of their marriage through five waves of data. While looking at the data, the study also looked at the experience of newlyweds who had children prior to tying the knot, to find circumstances that may contribute to the higher rate of marriage dissolution.
“Understanding these families’ experiences during the newlywed years is particularly important given that the newlywed years have long been recognized as a time of significant risk and change for many couples – they are a period during which marital satisfaction declines on average and when the risk of marital dissolution is greatest,” the study found.
Couples Who Enter Marriage With Children Cope Better With Stress?
Though, apart from what the study’s data may suggest, researchers entertained the theory that couples who already had a child prior to marriage might be able to push through the wave of change and risk that comes after saying “I do”.
Researchers toyed with the positive aspect that “…couples who enter marriage with children have more experience coping with stress and they may better weather the transition to marriage and other stressors during the newlywed years.”
Those experiences associated with having a child outside of the marriage, though, didn’t necessarily help couples in the study, but rather led to the dissolution in the earlier years of their marriages.
80% of Marriages Were Successful in Data Study
“Meta-analytic findings indicate that having children places unique demands on couples and is associated with lower marital quality, suggesting that couples entering marriage with children will experience more negative marital outcomes (e.g., lower marital quality, higher marital dissolution) over the early years of marriage relative to couples entering marriage without children,” the study said.
The study further suggested that this is even more likely in the marriages that were a result of the couple having a child together, rather than as a result of the couples’ relationships.
Though, if you’re in a relationship where you had a child before marriage, or you’re in a marriage like that now, don’t fret. While the study’s data found that almost 20% of these cases ended in divorce, 80% of those marriages were successful. Your experience and your marriage with your significant other is your own, and not a statistic.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: I want to thank paralegal, Kaylyn Hohn for analyzing this study and writing this blog article! Great job Kaylyn! Well done.
Our experienced Dayton divorce lawyers at Holzfaster, Cecil, McKnight & Mues can assist you with your divorce or dissolution related issues. To learn more, please go to our website at www.hcmmlaw.com or call us at 937 293-2141. We can schedule an in-person conference or one by phone or Zoom. We look forward to assisting you!
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Attorney Robert “Chip” Mues has been focusing his legal practice throughout Southwest Ohio primarily in divorce and family law matters since 1978. Chip is passionate about family law and has proudly published the Ohio Family Law Blog since 2007. In addition, he is the managing partner of Holzfaster, Cecil, McKnight & Mues. To learn more about him or the law firm, visit the firm’s website at www.hcmmlaw.com. Appointments are available in person, over the phone or by Zoom. Call us at 937 293-2141.
