“七年之癢”還是“五年之癢”？

The way we warred: Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell starred in The Seven Year Itch in 1955

Married couples are at their greatest risk of divorcing just before their fifth anniversary, it is claimed.

A study suggests that we tire of our partners far sooner than we did in the 50s, when the danger point was the 'seven-year itch'.

Five decades on more women are pursuing careers - which can place extra stress on a relationship - and divorce has become increasingly acceptable.

The findings emerged in a study of divorce trends in the U.S., Scandinavian countries and in Russia.

Experts believe they will also apply to Britain, which has gone through many of the same social changes.

Researchers found that the 'honeymoon' period for newlyweds lasts less than five years and that disillusionment and disaffection often set in by the end of that period.

There is an added incentive to battle through this period, however. The study showed that those who manage to make it to ten years are likely to remain married for good.

Aiva Jasilioniene, an academic specialising in marriage and cohabitation studies, helped produce the report for the Max Planck Institute in Rostock, Germany.

She said: "Crisis point for the modern marriage is arriving sooner.

"One of the explanations for these changes in divorce risk is that during the first decade of marriage both partners go through crucial life - course transitions and challenging experiences - completion of education, building a career, bearing children and so on.”

"During the later years, the couple have developed strategies to deal with problems they arise."

The decision to remain together could have a more practical basis, however.

Researchers found that after the five-year point of marriage, couples are increasingly deterred from parting by the cost of divorce and of running separate lives.

The findings are likely to shed new light on the state of marriage in Britain, which is at the centre of a growing political argument.

The Tories are proposing tax breaks for married couples, who tend to stay together longer than co-habiting couples and whose children tend to be healthier, do better at school, and go on to better jobs than children from broken or single-parent families.

Other results suggest that those who marry at a younger age are more likely to divorce.

This could help explain our falling divorce rate.

In Britain, women marry at 33 on average, and men at 36 - each three years older than the average a decade ago.

And at the same time, the divorce rate is falling.

Last year, the rate fell to 12.2 in every 1,000 couples. This is the lowest since 1984, according to the Office for National Statistics. The total number of divorces in 2006, 132,418, is the lowest since 1977.

有調查稱，已婚夫婦在結婚第五年的時候離婚的可能性最大。

研究表明，我們對伴侶感到厭倦的時間比50年代提前了，那時候婚姻的危險期還是“七年之癢”。

50年之後，更多的婦女在追求事業——這會給兩人的關係帶來額外的壓力——而離婚也變得更容易接受了。

這些是對美國、北歐國家和俄羅斯的離婚趨勢進行的一項調查得出的結論。

專家相信，這些結論同樣適用於英國，因爲英國經歷了許多相同的社會變革。

研究人員發現，新婚夫婦的“蜜月期”已經持續不到五年時間。蜜月期結束後，對於婚姻本質的領悟和對伴侶的不滿就會顯露出來。

然而，熬過這段時期還有另外一個動機。研究表明，那些婚姻可以維持十年的人很可能一輩子都不會離婚。

艾娃·佳斯里尼恩是研究婚姻和同居問題的專家，她幫助研究者爲德國羅斯托克市的馬克斯·普朗克協會做了這份報告。

她說，“現代婚姻的危險期提前了。”

“這種變化的一種解釋是，在結婚的第一個十年，夫妻雙方都在經歷生命中的一個重要階段——轉變人生方向和接受考驗——完成學業、建立職業生涯、生兒育女等等。”

“在之後的幾年裏，夫妻二人已經形成了處理各種問題的方法。”

然而，決定繼續在一起生活的原因可能更實際一些。

研究人員發現，結婚五年之後，兩個人會由於離婚和獨自生活的代價而越來越不願意分開。

研究結果可能會給英國日益激烈的政治辯論焦點——婚姻問題帶來些啓示。

保守黨正提議爲結婚的夫婦免稅，因爲結婚的人比同居的人呆在一起的時間更長，他們的孩子比家庭破裂或單親家庭的孩子更健康、在學校表現更好，找到的工作也更好。

另有研究表明，過早結婚的人更容易離婚。

這剛好能解釋英國的離婚率爲什麼在下降。

在英國，女人的平均結婚年齡是33，男人是36——分別比十年前的平均結婚年齡大三歲。

與之相對應，離婚率正在下降。

去年，離婚率降到了每1000對夫婦中有12.2對離婚。英國國家統計辦公室的數據顯示，這是自1984年以來的最低值。2006年的離婚總數是132418例，是自1977年以來的最低值。

seven-year itch:七年之癢

for good: 永久地，一勞永逸地