What Common Factors Contribute to Divorce?

As January approaches, colloquially known as divorce month, there are certain factors that contribute to divorce cases in the United States.

While stressors since the onset of COVID-19 have contributed to more stress and resulted in higher divorce rates than years past, several components underlie divorces in the United States. Below are four common factors that contribute to divorces.

Lack of Commitment

Lack of serious commitment from one spouse towards the other party is frequently a contributing factor in divorce cases. While lack of commitment is an overarching theme for a contributing cause of divorce, it can include hesitations of one party, relative to another, where one party attempts to seek out counseling, or other means of therapy, to help avoid a divorce and save the marriage.

Lack of commitment can include extramarital affairs, unwillingness to talk about relationships or open up about emotions and other selfish acts that exclude the other spouse.

Marrying Too Young

While the average age of marriage in the United States has steadily grown older, certain individuals still choose to get married at a very young age. While those that engage in marrying young (under the age of 22), may be in love at the time of marriage, wedded couples that tie the knot in their teens and early twenties have some of the highest divorce rates in the United States.

Marrying too young can limit the amount of life experiences that the two spouses are able to engage in. Instead of attending university, or experiencing your twenties and developing a sense of who one is, those that choose to wed at early ages may instead fill their time responsibilities more associated with adulthood including child rearing work.

Incompatibility & Communication Issues

Incompatibility is frequently cited as a stressor leading up to divorce and grounds for divorce. Incompatibility in marriages becomes exacerbated when the two spouses in a marriage get married when they are young.

In a 2006 poll of 1,514 people 22% of respondents cited communication problems as the dominant factor in divorce. Basic incompatibility was listed at 18% of the main reason for divorce.

However for male individuals that responded in this poll, basic incompatibility was the top choice with 27% of respondents citing incompatibility. Communication problems checked in at second with 25% of male respondents citing this as the cause of divorce.

Infidelity & Trust Issues

Infidelity, also known as extramarital affairs, is a common cause of divorce. In the event that one spouse cheats on the other, trust issues can destroy a marriage.

While some spouses may be able to move past their spouse’s adulterous behavior, in many instances it can cripple trust in the marriage that eventually leads to a divorce.

When one spouse cheats on another, the dismantling of the backbone of the marriage - trust - may be impossible to fix. For this reason, infidelity is a common factor that can lead to divorce.

When one is experiencing stressors in a marriage, it is easy to feel like there's no hope. However, the assistance of a marriage counselor can help address the underlying issues associated with stress in the marriage.