9 Really Weird Causes Of Divorce

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You’ve heard the statistic that about 50% of marriages end in divorce. And usually, it’s due to infidelity, growing apart, or financial stress. But not always. Sometimes, issues far stranger are to blame. Here, 9 truly surprising issues linked to divorce.

1. Your commute is too long.

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Maybe there’s too much stress when you’re stuck in traffic. Or maybe you miss quality time together while stuck on the road. Whatever the reason, when your commute to work is 45 minutes or more each way, you’re more likely to divorce, found a 2013 Swedish study published in the journal Urban Studies. The study tracked millions of Swedes over a 10-year period and found that 14% of the couples in which one or both partners had a long commute split, as opposed to 10% of the couples who worked closer to home.

Related: 8 Times It’s Totally Normal To Have A Low Libido

2. All your friends are doing it.
There’s that moment when all your pals are getting married or having babies, and you start to think you should, too. Turns out, the same thing happens with divorce, according to a study published in Social Forces. The phenomenon grows the closer you are to it: Study participants were 75% more likely to divorce if a close friend or family-member divorced, and 33% more likely to divorce if a friend of a friend divorced. But the power of influence can be positive, too: The study also suggests that helping a friend improve a rocky marriage may actually improve your own.

Related: 10 Things Never To Say To Someone Going Through A Divorce 

3. You first child is a girl.
Having a firstborn daughter leads to divorce more often than having a firstborn son, according to 60 years of US census data. Plus, an unmarried couple is 42% more likely to marry if their first child is a boy, says a University of Washington study. Does this suggest that fathers are more important to boys or that boys are more important to fathers? The jury is still out on that one.

Related: 7 Marriage Mistakes Even Smart Couples Make 

4. You got seriously ill.
Here’s some depressing news: A recent study in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior looked at almost 3,000 marriages of people over 50 and found that when a woman got seriously ill from cancer, heart or lung disease, or stroke, a marriage was 6% more likely to dissolve than if the man got sick or if both partners were healthy. The study authors suggest the financial strain that illness causes coupled with an older man’s ineptitude at caregiving contribute to marriage failure.

5. You’re a busy doctor.

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The prevailing wisdom from older studies said the demands of working as a physician increased your likelihood of getting divorced. It turns out the opposite is true. Sort of. A new analysis of census data in the BMJ found that physicians actually had a lower rate of divorce than dentists, health care executives, nurses, and lawyers. But there’s a caveat: Female physicians who worked more than 40 hours per week actually had a higher rate of divorce. The opposite was true for men: When a male doctor worked more than 40 hours per week, his divorce rate dropped.

Related: 11 Early Warning Signs Of Divorce Most People Miss

6. You share the housework equally.
Well this is unexpected: Couples who shared housework equally actually had a higher rate of divorce, according to a Norwegian study. It found that in most homes, child rearing was split 50-50, but domestic chores usually fell to women. However, when couple split housework down the middle, divorce rates were higher. The study author suggests that these couples have created a business-like partnership that leads to unhappiness rather than a relationship filled with generosity, intimacy, and spontaneity.

7. You drink more than he does.

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While heavy drinking and addiction is associated with higher rates of divorce in general, the numbers spike if the wife drinks significantly more than her husband, according to a Norwegian study published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. The study looked at alcohol consumption and rates of divorce in nearly 20,000 couples. Couples that didn’t drink or drank the same amount had a lower rate of divorce. While the rate of divorce went up when a man drank more than his wife, it actually tripled when a woman drank more excessively than her husband.

8. You’re at a healthy weight.
If your weight is under control, you’re far more likely to file for divorce, according to a 2013 study from the online service MyDivorcePapers.com. The researchers analyzed more than 2,700 divorce filings and found that 76% of them occurred when both husband and wife each weighed less than 200 pounds. The group with the lowest divorce rate weighed in at over 250 pounds.

Related: 15 Teeny Tiny Ways To Lose Weight Faster 

9. You’re missing the “love hormone.”
Swedish researchers found a gene variant that may contribute to rocky marriages and divorce, according to a 2013 study in Biological Psychiatry. Some women carry the permutation that prevents them from properly processing oxytocin, or the “cuddle-hormone,” which we produce naturally to promote love, connection, and happiness. Women with the gene variant often stay single, have trouble bonding, and, if they do marry, are 50% more likely to have a rocky, unfulfilling relationship on a beeline towards a divorce.

Related: 8 Surprising Marriage Insights From Divorce Lawyers 

By  Jordan Davidson

This article ‘9 Really Weird Causes Of Divorce’ originally ran on Prevention.com.