Fullerton Family Law Blog

Californians who feel hopeless about their relationships are much likelier to divorce than people who feel like their marriages are worth working on. When one spouse feels indifferent about their relationships, they might be unwilling to invest time and energy in order to save them.

According to a study that was conducted in 1992 by researchers at the University of Washington, the strongest predictors that couples would divorce were feelings of disillusionment and disappointment. In the study, people who felt hopeless about their marriages at the beginning of the research period were much likelier to be divorced three years later.

People in California may be surprised to learn that when their friends divorce, they are more likely to consider divorce themselves. While ideas about the social contagion of divorce have always been popular, especially when people see several friends end their marriages in quick succession, the concept is backed up by scientific research. A study conducted by researchers at Brown University, Harvard University and the University of California at San Diego found that people with friends who divorce are 75 percent more likely to end their own marriages. In addition, even people with friends of friends who get divorced see their likelihood of divorce rise by 33 percent.

There are a number of contributing factors to this social phenomenon. In the first place, all of these events may happen inside social groups that are already comfortable with and supportive of divorce. However, it is also true that watching a friend's divorce can stir up thoughts and emotional responses, especially for those in unhappy marriages. Many people have thought about separating for years but do not take action. When they see their friends move forward with their lives, they may be inspired to break free of that sense of stagnation.

If parents hope to provide the best life they can for their child after a divorce, it is necessary for them to create and maintain a strong parenting plan. In most cases, courts require parents to file a parenting plan as a part of their divorce. However, some parents choose to create a plan they don't intend to follow, making the experience more difficult and destructive for themselves and for the children they love.

A strong parenting plan is not a silver bullet to cure all the tension between parents who divorce, but it goes a long way towards establishing a dependable structure that parents and children can depend on. It's easy to work things out without a written plan when two parents are on good terms and their child is relatively happy, but once conflicts arise, parenting plans help keep both sides in line and protect the best interests of the child.

Younger people in Fullerton are often struggling with a serious burden of student loan debt. Across the country, the average student loan borrower owes $34,144, and people who graduated from university in 2017 have an average burden of $39,400. These numbers don't tell the whole story; in the last 10 years, the percentage of borrowers who owe more than $50,000 in educational debt has tripled. Many millennials have postponed life goals as a result of debt, particularly student loans, and living life with substantial debt can have a major impact on psychological health and well-being as well as the choices that people make about their jobs, relationships and spending habits.

All of this means that student loan debt can put significant stress on a marriage. While many young people have waited to marry until an older age, those who marry with outstanding student loans have often found that financial conflicts have caused division and even led to divorce. People with outstanding student loans may want to delay milestones like purchasing a home or even having children, leading to conflicts with partners who want to pursue these goals more urgently. In other cases, partners may find out that their priorities for managing money are substantially different.