The Most Common Reasons for Divorce

 Posted on December 22, 2014 in Divorce

Marital relationships are uniquely personal, but there are still trends and commonalities that run between all of them. Many people going through or considering a divorce begin to get curious about this sort of common ground. It is not unusual to wonder whether there are other couples whose divorce was predicated on the same sort of problem.

Over the years, numerous studies have been conducted to examine what sorts of things were the most commonly reported causes of divorce. Naturally, the lists differ from study to study. However, psychologists at the University of Iowa conducted a review of multiple studies in an attempt to bring all their research together. They succeeded in creating a list of the most commonly reported reasons for divorce, and also broke the complaints down along gender lines.

Top Ten Overall

The review of the literature includes a list of commonly reported reasons for the divorce, along with a percentage of couples who reported it. The top ten causes from this list were:

1. Infidelity;
2. Incompatibility;
3. Drinking or substance abuse;
4. Growing apart;
5. Personality problems;
6. Lack of communication;
7. Physical or mental abuse;
8. Loss of love;
9. Not meeting family obligations; and
10. Employment problems.

One of the most interesting pieces of the study is the way the percentages of those different causes break down. For instance, those top ten causes are responsible for over four out of every five divorces. Additionally, the top two causes, infidelity and incompatibility, caused over one-third of all reported divorces. The list is also interesting as far as the breakdowns between the causes that men and women reported.

Differences between Men and Women

Overall, the lists reported by men and women as far as reasons for divorce were fairly similar, but there were a few notable changes between them. Women were considerably more likely than men to report substance abuse issues or physical abuse, as well as infidelity. Conversely, men were more likely to report problems with communication or with their spouse's personality. Interestingly, both genders were almost identical with regard to reporting that they divorced based on the fact that they were incompatible with their spouse.

Men and women also diverge substantially with regard to the eleventh most common cause on the list, which was that they did not know what caused their divorce. Overall, 9.1 percent of men reported that they did not know what prompted their divorce. By comparison, there were no women who reported that they did not know why their marriage ended.

Divorce may be an emotionally painful process, but it is a common one. Fortunately, no one has to go through it alone. Contact an experienced DuPage County divorce attorney today to learn more about how the divorce process works.