Study increases marriage success by 20%

William Atkins
Saturday, 06 March 2010 06:14

Science - Health

A study performed by Swiss scientists states that if couples follow their scientific guidelins before getting married, it will increase their chances for a long, happy, and successful marriage by up to 20%.




The paper that summarizes the research was performed by researchers in Switzerland.

The lead author is Nguyen Vi Cao'”who is associated with the HES-SO School of Business Administration in Carouge, Switzerland, which is within the Haute école spécialisée de Suisse occidentale (University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland).

The paper, to be published on April 16, 2010 (Volume 202, Issue 2, Pages 547-553) in the European Journal of Operational Research, is entitled 'Optimizing the marriage market: An application of the linear assignment model.'

The Swiss researchers state within the abstract to their paper, 'Research shows that the success of marriages and other intimate partnerships depends on objective attributes such as differences in age, cultural background, and educational level.'

The researchers spent five years looking at 1,074 couples between the ages of 19 and 75 years of age.

They continue by saying, 'This article proposes a mathematical approach to optimizing marriage by allocating spouses in such a way as to reduce the likelihood of divorce or separation. To produce our optimization model, we use the assumption of a central 'agency' that would coordinate the matching of couples.' [Abstract]

'Based on a representative and longitudinal sample of 1074 cohabiting and married couples living in Switzerland, we estimate various objective functions corresponding to age, education, ethnicity, and prior divorce concerning every possible combination of men and women.' [Abstract]

Page two continues with comments from Dr. Nguyen Vi Cao, along with three criteria for a better chance for a happy marriage.