![\"Divorce](\"https:\/\/timedotcom.files.wordpress.com\/2015\/07\/19951.png?w=300\")
<\/figure>\nSome wag over at Slate called this the Goldilocks theory of getting married: you have to be not too young and not too old.<\/p>\n
There are lots of reasons why late 20s\/early 30s would make sense as a time to start a lifelong partnership with someone: people are old enough to understand if they really get along with someone or are just blinded by hormones. They\u2019ve already made significant life choices and taken on some responsibilities. And they may be just financially solvent enough to be able to contemplate supporting someone should the need arise.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, they\u2019re not so old and set in their ways that they can\u2019t make the myriad of little adjustments in habits and lifestyle and goals and personal hygiene that marriage requires. They probably don\u2019t have ex-spouses or children among whom they to divide their time, resources and loyalty.<\/p>\n
Wolfinger says the curve persists \u201ceven after controlling for respondents\u2019 sex, race, family structure of origin, age at the time of the survey, education, religious tradition, religious attendance, and sexual history, as well as the size of the metropolitan area that they live in.\u201d He thinks the reason might be selection bias. \u201cThe kinds of people who wait till their thirties to get married may be the kinds of people who aren\u2019t predisposed toward doing well in their marriages,\u201d he writes. This also means \u201cpeople who marry later face a pool of potential spouses that has been winnowed down to exclude the individuals most predisposed to succeed at matrimony.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Again, I refer you to my caveat in paragraph two. It\u2019s Mr. Wolfinger suggesting singles over 32 are not marriage material, not me. )<\/p>\n
Other sociologists who cover this waterfront were quick to weigh in with doubts. The University of Maryland\u2019s Phillip Cohen used a different set of data, from the American Community Survey, to say that getting older didn\u2019t mean your marriage had less chance of survival. According to his analysis, the perfect age to get married if you don\u2019t want to get divorced is 45 to 49, which, he notes, is why people shouldn\u2019t make life decisions based on statistical analyses on the Internet.<\/p>\n The truth is: divorce is a difficult social pattern to measure. Many states decline to collect data on it. And since a growing number of people are opting for living together without getting the government seal of approval, counting divorce is becoming less useful as a way of measuring family fracturing.<\/p>\n Still, there are a few truisms backed by research: Having money and a college degree reduces your chances of getting divorced, as does getting engaged before moving in together and waiting to have kids until after the nuptials. Those you can pretty much take to the bank.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: Time<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A new study suggests that people should get married between the ages of 28 and 32 if they don\u2019t want to get divorced, at least in the first five years. Before we proceed to the explanation: Don\u2019t shoot me if you\u2019re older than that and not married yet. These are just statistics and can in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":180180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[354],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/timedotcom.files.wordpress.com\/2015\/07\/agemar-divorce.png?w=300&h=218\")