Does Divorce Run in the Family? New Studies Show Divorce May Be In Your Genes.

By Muk Khatri in Facts and DIY On 18th October 2017

#1 The Traditional Family

The traditional family: that of both parents happily married, under the same roof, and raising their children together has long been touted the "ideal" in family goals.

#2 The Factors

What determines whether or not a marriage will be successful? Is it just the level of commitment by both parties involved? Is it your background and how you were raised? Or is it something else?

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#3 Environmental Factors

It has long been studied and believed that environmental factors in a person's childhood upbringing play a major role in shaping that person's mentality for future relations.

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#4 Shaping Your Personality

Basically, it was said (not shockingly) that people learn how to treat future relations by the examples they saw in early years. In addition, the feelings they experienced with the parents made lasting impressions on related feelings later in life.

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#5 Undermining Backgrounds

I don't think any of us are too surprised at this information. Our backgrounds and experiences definitely shape who we become. But they aren't the only influence.

#6 Runs in the Family?

A new study reported in psychology journals has stated researchers are now testing the theory of genetics in relation to divorce. If you've ever wondered why some families seem to be plagued by divorce, scientists are looking for a genetic link to prove why.

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#7 Biological vs. Adopted

The new studies focused on a series of new tests that looked at thousands of families. They compared children who had been raised by adoptive parents with the marital success rates of the children, the adoptive families, and the biological families.

#8 The Scenarios

Researchers also looked at families in which a child was raised by only one biological parent. The idea behind the studies was to study cases in which the children had no contact with one biological parent or both, to see if they retained similar traits, behaviors, and struggles.

#9 The Results

Their results showed a clear correlation between biological parents who divorced (once or multiple times in their lives) and their children later doing the same. This happened regardless to the upbringing in the new adoptive family, and with no knowledge of the biological parents.

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#10 It's In the Genes

The astounding results seemed to show a direct correlation between genetics and divorce. So what does this mean? Does it mean there's a divorce gene that makes certain people's relationships doomed for failure? No.

#11 No Divorce Gene

There is no divorce gene which links blood descendants to a failed marriage. What it does mean, is there are certain genetic traits we inherit from our parents at birth that are enormous factors in relationship health later in life.

#12 The Traits

The traits we inherit from our parents go well beyond eye and hair color. We also inherit insecurities, narcissistic tendencies, and angry tempers.

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#13 Divorce

These traits make it very difficult to live with other people later in life. Neurotic behaviors are tough to cope with and even tougher to see beyond. You're not inheriting divorce, you're inheriting the traits that can cause a divorce.

#14 The Environment

That's not to say your environment doesn't play any part in how you learn to cope with things or treat people. Researchers are more inclined to say it is a combination of both genetics and environmental factors that led to certain families being more prone to divorce than others.

#15 Genetically Destined for Bad Choices

Of course, by the same token as mentioned previously, the very same genetics that make us prone to divorce can also make us prone to entering marriages we never should have been in in the first place.