Does Smoking Lead to Divorce?

An article from Australia’s Brisbane Times suggests that marrying an opposite is more likely to lead to divorce. Australian National University tracked the relationships of 2,500 couples and found the factors that increased the likelihood of marriage breakdown included differences in age, substance use, work, and desire for children.

The risk of divorce doubled in couples with a significant age difference, particularly in those where the husband was nine or more years older than the wife or the husband is two or more years younger than the wife.
For those couples where one is a smoker and the other is not, the study found the relationships were 75-90% more likely to end than couples that were both non-smokers.

Surprisingly, factors that were not important included differing education levels, religious beliefs and country of birth.  This article made me wonder whether Montana’s recent ban on smoking will have an impact on the divorce rate.  Given the economic conditions we are seeing around Kalispell and the rest of the state, I have trouble imagining that it will make much of a difference.

See the full article at http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/breaking-news-national/opposites-more-likely-to-divorce-study-20090713-dihh.html.