Study Finds Divorce is Contagious

It’s not exactly the black plague, but the concept is pretty intuitive. The report, “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do, Unless Everyone Else Is Doing It Too,” comes from researchers at Harvard, Brown and the University of California at San Diego.

“These social networks, they have influence on everything,” said James Fowler, one of the study’s authors. “Our health, who we marry, our economy, our political behavior. Most of the research shows we tend to do what our friends do.”

The report, which tracked thousands of people from Framingham, Mass., for 32 years, offers a few revelations:

• Divorce can spread between friends, siblings, co-workers. It can even go two deep — your friends’ friends can affect your marriage.

• You’re 75 percent more likely to get divorced if a close friend is divorced.

• Having children helps. Every child makes you less susceptible to being influenced by divorced friends. It takes five children to completely negate the virus effect.

• Popular people are less likely to get divorced. Divorcees have deeper social networks and remarry other divorcees.

Half of all U.S. marriages will end in divorce during the first 15 years, according to the Census Bureau, and the examples are all around. Al and Tipper Gore separated in June after 40 years of marriage. The next week, daughter Karenna Gore Schiff announced her separation from her husband, which had happened quietly months earlier. And if you want super-shaky anecdotal data, just watch any of the Real Housewives.

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This article was posted in California Divorce Articles.