A new report by researchers at the University of Michigan found that couples are more likely to file for divorce if the wife becomes sick. The same did not hold true when the husband became sick. The study looked at nearly 3,000 married people over two decades with at least one of the spouses being sick. The study found that while 31 percent of couples got divorced, the rate increased when the wife got sick.
That figure wasn’t made clear in the source article, but it is an interesting piece of information to come out of the study. Researchers are not sure why this phenomenon presented itself. It could be that men are simply more likely to use the illness as an excuse to file for divorce. Or it could be that many women are unimpressed with the care their husband gives them and thus they choose to divorce.
There are so many complex factors that go into a divorce though that an illness is unlikely to be the sole reason someone files for divorce. Many people are dealing with unhappy marriages in the first place. Sickness doesn’t even have to be a part of the equation. When two people no longer see eye to eye and as a result the marriage suffers, well then it may be time to file for divorce.
A divorce is a chance to start anew. You can put a painful chapter in your life behind you and move on to a hopefully happier and more fulfilling stage of your life.
Source: TIME, “Divorce More Likely When Wife Falls Ill,” Alexandra Sifferlin, May 1, 2014
