If my parents divorced, am I likely to divorce as well?

The title of this post is perhaps one of the most common questions in any relationship across the nation because it taps into our primal nature to make order out of chaos. Now, that’s not to say that your own relationship cannot be affected by other relationships in your life, but rather it’s important to remember that sometimes things happen in our lives that are completely random and may not have anything to do with what we think they might.

Divorce is a great example of something that can happen in our lives that we try to link to past events. Perhaps, as the title suggests, you come from a divorced family and worry that your own marriage may fail. While current studies suggest that children whose parents divorced are more like to get a divorce themselves, this does not necessarily mean that this will happen every time. Remember, a marriage can dissolve because of a number of reasons and may not have anything to do with a previous divorce in your life. For some couples the dissolution of a marriage can result because of the way each person’s career is advancing or even because one spouse meets another person they feel they connect more with.

Whatever the reason, it’s important to remember that just because your parents divorced does not necessarily mean that your own marriage is doomed to failure.  If you do find your marriage on the rocks though and are considering divorce, most people will tell you that although the process can be incredibly stressful for some couples, a divorce does not mean the end of the world.  As a recent article in the Huffington Post points out, some people find themselves happier after a divorce than they were in their marriage.  And for our Missouri readers who may have fears about their own divorce, this may be what they need in order to have hope that their divorce will have a similar happy ending.

Source: The Huffington Post, “A Second Look at the Vicious Cycle of Divorce,” Elise Pettus, Dec. 20, 2013