On behalf of The Marks Law Firm, L.L.C posted in Divorce on Thursday, July 12, 2012
A new study suggests that though low-income couples value marriage as much as those with more wealth, they are more likely to divorce if they do marry.
The study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family involved just over 6,000 participants (none of them in Missouri).
The people studied were in Florida, New York, Texas and California. Sixty-six percent of the participants were female; 53 percent of the participants were married; 61 percent were white; 14 percent were African-American; and 19 percent were Hispanic, Black Latino or non-white, according to a media report.
Twenty-nine percent of the participants are low-income; 26 percent had what researchers deemed moderate incomes; and 35 percent were considered as high-income. The average age of the 6,012 participants was 46 years old.
Participants were interviewed over the phone by researchers who were part of a team led by two University of California professors.
Like all studies of marriage and divorce, this one should be taken with a grain of salt. No one should try to apply the results of research of large groups of people to individuals.
That said, this particular study suggests that low-income people have the same marriage values as those with higher incomes.
Despite those shared beliefs about the value of marriage, low-income people struggled to stay in marriages, often because they or their spouse (or both) were dealing with financial problems and/or alcohol and drug abuse.
Unsurprisingly, those kinds of serious difficulties can often make divorce more likely.
Source: Medical Daily, “Social Issues Are to Blame for Higher Rates of Divorce in Lower Income Individuals,” Nikki Tucker, July 10, 2012