I am sure every divorce lawyer has been there. A client
comes to you to start divorce proceedings. You will get to
talking and the client will tell you – "I spoke with my
friend about my decision to divorce...and...well...you'll be
getting another call shortly."
So you might imagine that it came as no surprise to me when the
Journal of Social Forces recently released a study entitled: Breaking Up is Hart to Do, Unless Everyone Else is
Doing it Too.
The study centered around its hypothesis that divorce can in
fact spread between friends, producing "clusters" of
divorcees in some social circles.
Researchers at Brown University, headed by Rose McDermott,
Ph.d., examined data on marriage, divorce and remarriage dating
back thirty years set from the long-running Framingham, Massachusetts Heart Study. The
results were staggering. Study participants were 75 percent
more likely to divorce if a friend divorces – that's 75
percent!
