研究：夫妻年龄相近的婚姻更长久

这对爱吃嫩草的熟女而言，可不是什么好消息。据英国《每日邮报》报道，一项新研究在调查了3000名刚结婚和离婚的美国人后发现，夫妻年龄差距越小，离婚的几率也越低。

研究人员指出，如果和伴侣的年龄差在五岁以内，就没什么好担心的，但是如果一方年龄大到足以做另一方的父母，那这两人的婚姻就很难走到最后。

研究还发现，生育小孩可大大降低离婚几率。

For women on the lookout for Mr Right, it might pay to search for someone your own age.

According to a new study that compiled polling data from more than 3,000 recently married and divorced Americans, the closer you are in age to your husband, the greater your chances of avoiding divorce.

'The authors pointed out that is a significant correlation between wider age gaps and increased divorce,' explained Randy Olson, a data visualizer who illustrated the study, which was published on the Social Science Research Network.

'Only being one to five years away from your partner is nothing to worry about, but if you’re old enough to be your partner’s parent, then your marriage might be in trouble,' he explained.

However, shortfalls of the study mean 'it is not possible to determine the relative percent likelihood' of a marriage's success or failure based on age alone, Mr Olson added.

The study, which used a multivariate model to calculate factors that best predict a marriage's chances of success, also looked at money, children, and the length of time a couple spends dating before they tie the knot.

Some interesting findings include: having a baby with your spouse can decrease your chances of divorce by as much as 76 percent compared to couples who do not have children.

And even having children out of wedlock still reduces the long-term chances of divorce, according to the study.

It seems that education difference matters more for women than men when it comes to marriage success.

Women are 50 percent more likely to end up divorced when there is an education difference versus men at only 32 percent more likely.

However, as Mr Olson notes, it is important to keep in mind that these predictors are simply correlated to marriage stability, 'and they could be telling us any number of things,' he explained.

'Either people in stabler marriages are more likely to have kids in wedlock, or people in less stable (unhappy) marriages tend not to have kids.

'Keep an open mind when thinking about what could really be driving these correlations with marriage stability,' said Mr Olson.