DID YOU KNOW?

• 50% of all new marriages end in divorce.
• Poor communication skills and the inability to resolve conflict are leading causes of divorce.
• Couples who participate in marriage preparation programs experience a 30% increase in marital success over those who do not participate.
• Of those couples who pray together in their homes on a regular basis, the divorce rate is 0.3% (or one divorce out of every 300 couples).
• A healthy marriage contributes to greater physical and emotional health, greater job stability and satisfaction, higher wages, and increased life expectancies.
• Many couples today are seriously lacking in conflict resolution and communication skills, which can strip marriage of intimacy and satisfaction.
• Married people (43% very happy) are happier than unmarried couples (24% very happy) and this has been a consistent finding over the years.

COHABITATION

• From 1960 to 1998 the number of unmarried, cohabitating couples increased nearly tenfold from 439,000 to 4.2 million. In 2008 6.8 million unmarried opposite-sex couples were living together.
• By age 30, three-quarters of women in the U.S. have been married and about half have cohabitated outside of marriage.
• Cohabiting couples and unmarried families report greater rates of unhappiness, dissatisfaction and high amounts of conflict.
• Cohabitation before marriage significantly increases the chances for divorce later on, with a divorce rate of 73%.
• Only 53% of first cohabiting unions result in marriage.
• 80% of women who cohabitate before marriage will end up divorced.
• Those living together before marriage do not experience the best sex.
• The probability of a first marriage ending in separation or divorce within 5 years is 20%, but the probability of a premarital cohabitation marriage breaking up within 5 years is 50%.

NATURAL FAMILY PLANNING

• Couples report that Natural Family Planning is a marriage building experience. There is a less than 5% divorce rate among couples practicing NFP. It improves communication and gives the couple a deeper respect for each other.
• NFP has a 99.5% method effectiveness rate for couples avoiding pregnancy.
• Using NFP is very helpful in aiding in the evaluation and treatment of infertility.
• There are many benefits to NFP including: it is medically safe, proven reliable, flexible, natural and cooperative with your body, a shared system between husband and wife, comparatively inexpensive and respects the dignity of women and men.

WHEN IT COMES TO KIDS…

• Children of divorce and single parent homes are three times more likely to drop out of school or to have a baby as a teenager, five times as apt to live in poverty and are 12 times more likely to be incarcerated.
• Children of divorce are at increased risk for an array of emotional and psychological problems that can extend well into adulthood.
• Divorce can cause serious emotional and psychological scarring, and overwhelming financial burdens.
• When divorce happens once, it’s more likely to happen again with a second marriage.

Sources:
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
The National Marriage Project
Institute for American Values
The Coalition for Marriage, Family & Couples Education
Professor Janet E. Smith, PhD.
National Center for Health Statistics