Divorce in your DNA?

   Is divorce in your DNA? A new study says that's certainly possible, at least for some men. But that doesn't mean you can predict whether your potential partner will want a divorce based on his genes, according to the lead researcher Hasse Walum, a post graduate student at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.

"There are, of course, many reasons why a person might have relationship problems, but this is the first time a specific gene variant has been associated with how men bond with their partners," Walum said.

About a 1,000 couples -- 1000 men and 1000 women -- participated in the study, which involved a questionnaire asking whether males had experienced a crisis in their marriage in the last year, according to Walum. The idea for the human study surfaced after a study on small rodents called voles, also known as meadow or field mice in North America, showed genetics played a part in their relationship bonding.

Walum's group examined the association between the vasopressin receptor 1a gene and human bonding behavior to see if a similar pattern emerged in human genetics. Women whose husband's had the gene scored lower on "affection expression" than those married to men without it. "The fact that our results are so consistent with earlier studies done on voles makes it more intriguing," Walum said.

This study won't be of much help to anyone with a struggling marriage, he said. "Since the effect of the gene variant that we have studied is small, our results will not be very useful when trying to determine why individuals struggle in their relationships. There are of course many different factors influencing how happy people are in their relationship and the gene variant we have studied will make a very small part of these factors," he said.

Walum is planning to continue studying the issue in the future -- searching for a similar genetic connection involving women. "One interesting study we want to do is to look into if we can find similar results for an association between the oxytocin receptor gene and pair-bonding in women," he said. "In the present study we only found an effect of the variant of the vasopressin receptor in men which is kind of what we expected since the effects of vasopressin has been shown to be more prominent in males, whereas the effects of oxytocin is more prominent in female."

The study results have gotten a lot of media attention, which is surprising to Walum. "We expected to get some attention, but not quite this much. I think people in general get interested (or provoked) then they here about genes and human behavior. If you add that it is behavior concerning marital relationships, of course even more will want to read about it," he said.

Divorce360 expert Tina Tessina, Ph.D., a Long Beach, Calif., psychotherapist with more than 30 years of experience, said the study is interesting, but there's simply no way to know how to predict divorce in a potential partner. "The press likes these genetic studies because it sounds useful, but it really isn't," she said. "The way to know if your romance will last is to observe your partner's past and present behavior, especially in group settings, and to learn the proven skills to make marriage work."

Brenda Della Casa, relationship expert and author of the book "Cinderella was a Liar," agreed. "The great thing is that even without knowing what gene he or she has, a persons actions, reactions, words and promises all have meaning and tells you more about the person than any study could. The question is; when someone tells you who they are, will you believe them."

"One of the biggest mistakes men and women make is ignoring behaviors that should serve as a red light warning," Della Casa said. "They will ignore rude behavior or tell themselves the person they are dating didn't mean to be dismissive or disrespectful. They will allow potential mates to cross boundaries instead of speaking up or ending the relationship if it happens more frequently than it should  and do all of this in the name of love. The bottom line is that, outside of extreme cases of deception, we have a pretty good idea as to whether or not someone will be a good long  partner. You know what feels right with you and what doesn't and listen to your heart but obey to your gut.  If someone says they don't believe in marriage, want children, want to commit, etc. take it at face value and not as a challenge to prove you can be the one to change them."