Divorce is a cancer in America today. Comparing divorced individuals to happily married couples*, consider that, on average, divorced individuals:

• Earn less money.
• Experience higher poverty rates.
• Spend more time in prison.
• Experience a less satisfying sexual life.
• Are more likely to divorce again.
• Suffer more emotional and psychological stress.

...and have children who are:

• twice as likely to drop out of school.
• twice as likely to have psychological problems.
• three times as likely to commit suicide.

Despite knowing that divorce is terrible, roughly half of all marriages end in divorce, almost double the rate of just forty years ago…and the U.S. census is forecasting the rate to increase over the next ten years!

And when do couples get divorced? Approximately half of divorces occur within the first seven years of marriage and one-quarter within the first three years! The chart below shows that couples decide early whether to divorce:

Most couples know divorce is costly, and yet a large percentage decide to get divorced . . . mostly within the first few years of marriage.

Is this crisis avoidable? Yes, research shows that well-designed marriage preparation can help prevent divorce, especially in the early years of the marriage. And Zoe provides a structured approach to marriage preparation that utilizes effective and flexible materials based on leading research to help a couple establish a strong marriage from the beginning and make the couple’s commitment a long-lasting one.

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Sources: U.S. Census data, Larson, Blankenhorn, NCC, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency.