Marriage in today’s society involves tasks that range from managing a budget to managing your temper, with lots of love, communication and common sense for good measure.

The likelihood of divorce for an average married couple today is between 40 percent and 45 percent. However, a study by sociologist Linda Waite, University of Chicago, showed that two-thirds of unhappily married individuals who avoided divorce or separation rated themselves as happily married five years later.

What happened?

To find out, Sean Brotherson, North Dakota State University family researcher, and Ally Hanten, NDSU master of science candidate, are seeking to answer that question in a study focused on couples who put their marriages back together.

They are seeking interested couples who would be willing to be interviewed as part of the putting marriage back together study. Responses to the study will be confidential.

“We know that many couples discuss separation or divorce, but stick together,” Brotherson says. “We want to learn how they successfully overcame those challenges. No one has carefully looked at this phenomenon before.”

Interested couples can receive more information or enroll in the study by contacting Hanten at (612) 270-5588 or by e-mail at allyson.hanten@ndsu.edu. Brotherson can be contacted at (701) 231-6143 or by e-mail at sean.brotherson@ndsu.edu.

Brotherson and Hanten have been approved to conduct the research through NDSU.

“We need to learn from couples in stable marriage relationships who at one time in the past encountered the threat of separation or divorce,” Brotherson says.

NDSU Agriculture Communication