Pre-wedding jitters linked to higher divorce rates: study

Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles have demonstrated that pre-wedding uncertainty, especially among women can predict higher divorce rates and less marital satisfaction years later.

"People think everybody has premarital doubts and you don't have to worry about them," Justin Lavner, lead author of the study, said.

"We found they are common but not benign. Newlywed wives who had doubts about getting married before their wedding were two-and-a-half times more likely to divorce four years later than wives without these doubts," Lavner said.

The study found that among couples still married after four years, husbands and wives with doubts were significantly less satisfied with their marriage than those without doubts.

"You know yourself, your partner and your relationship better than anybody else does; if you're feeling nervous about it, pay attention to that. It's worth exploring what you're nervous about," Lavner said in a statement.

The psychologists studied 464 newlywed spouses (232 couples) in Los Angeles within the first few months of marriage and conducted follow-up surveys with the couples every six months for four years.

At the time of marriage, the average age of the husbands was 27, and the average age of the wives was 25.

When asked, "Were you ever uncertain or hesitant about getting married?" at their initial interview, 47 per cent of husbands and 38 per cent of wives said yes.

Yet while women were less likely than men to have doubts, their doubts were more meaningful in predicting trouble after the wedding, the researchers found.

Among women, 19 per cent of those who reported pre-wedding doubts were divorced four years later, compared with 8 per cent of those who did not report having doubts.

For husbands, 14 per cent who reported premarital doubts were divorced four years later, compared with 9 per cent who did not report having doubts.

In 36 per cent of couples, the husband and wife had no doubts about getting married. Of those couples, 6 per cent got divorced within four years.

When only the husband had doubts, 10 per cent of the couples got divorced. When only the wife had doubts, 18 per cent of couples got divorced. When both partners had doubts, 20 per cent of the couples got divorced.

The research was published in the Journal of Family Psychology.