This surprising thing reduces divorce risk

Here’s what research generally shows about divorce rates for couples with children versus without — keeping in mind the picture isn’t perfectly clear-cut and depends on how the data is measured:

1. Couples with children tend to divorce less often than couples without children.
Some sources estimate that the divorce rate for married couples who have children is substantially lower — in some reports as much as 40 % lower — than for those who do not have children. In other words, households with kids tend to stay married longer than those without children. 

2. Many divorced couples are childless.
Some studies suggest that a greater share of divorces occur among childless couples. For example, one analysis found that around two-thirds of divorced couples did not have children, while about 40 % of couples with children divorced in the same dataset. .

This can be interpreted two ways:
• It may reflect that couples without children have fewer “stakes” linking them together, making dissolution more likely.
• Or it may reflect broader selection effects (couples who choose to have children differ in other ways from couples who don’t).

3. Complexities in the research:
• The timing of children matters: couples who have children before marriage may have higher divorce rates than those who wait until after marriage. 
• Some research also finds that marital satisfaction declines after kids arrive — even as divorce rates are lower — which suggests children may bind couples legally even while they create stress. 
• Patterns also vary based on family demographics (e.g., age of children, number of children), and different studies sometimes reach different conclusions.

Summary:
• Many reports find that married couples with children have lower divorce rates than those without. 
• However, the relationship isn’t simple, and factors like whether the children were born before or after marriage, parenting stress, and demographic profiles of couples also influence outcomes. 

If you want more specific statistics (e.g., percentages by age group, number of children, or by decade), I can dig up more detailed figures.

#relationshipadvice #marriagecoach #divorce