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Why We Divorce – National Poll Results

North Palm Beach, Florida. January 9, 2008: divorce360.com commissioned a GFK Roper poll on divorce to learn more about the causes for divorce.

Women divorce over abuse, men divorce over sex:

The number one reason people gave for divorce is abuse. More than one in three (36%) divorced Americans cited either verbal or physical abuse as the main cause of divorce. Money, at 22%, is a distant second. Other reasons for divorce include someone new entered their life (18%), sex (16%), disagreements about how to raise their children (13%), or boredom (12%) as contributing factors. Only 6% divorced over whether to have children, and just 4% cite religion as a factor.

Gender plays a role in the reasons for divorce:

Women are more than twice as likely as men (48% vs. 21%) to divorce because of verbal or physical abuse. Men, in turn, are more than twice as likely as women (22% vs. 11%) to cite sex as the cause for their failed marriage.

Not divorcing- but thinking about it:

One third, 33%, of married Americans have at some point in their marriage considered the idea of divorce. Two in ten, (19%), cited issues surrounding children, while 18% cite fears about cheating as the primary reasons for thinking about divorce.

Women are significantly more likely than men (39% vs. 27%) to have at least thought about divorce at some point in their marriage. Children are most likely to be the issue, particularly for women. Most notably, women are more than twice as likely as men to think about divorce after their children were born (19% vs. 7%).

Divorce has become an unfortunate reality”, notes divorce360.com’s CEO, Cotter Cunningham. “It is difficult, painful and complex. We don’t advocate divorce. We do want to help people struggling with it. From making the decision to leave to going to court for custody or alimony, divorce is an emotional, financial and legal rollercoaster. It doesn’t just impact the two people involved. It impacts their children, friends and other family members. The decisions made before, during and after a divorce can touch many lives. Divorce360 strives to offer the essential information needed to help people make educated choices about those important decisions.”

About divorce360.com

Provides help, advice and community for people contemplating, going through or recovering from divorce and the issues around it – custody, child support, alimony and litigation. The site is a unique blend of editorial and user-generated content. Launched in November 2007 by executives formerly with Bankrate, Procter & Gamble and Gannett, divorce360.com is headquartered in North Palm Beach, FL.

About the GFK Roper Poll:

For entire poll results, please contact Paula Sirois at paula@smallponds.comor cell: 561 324 8116. Methodology: The results contained in the poll report are based on telephone interviews conducted from September 7th to September 9th and then again September 14th to September 16th, 2007. The study was conducted in two waves. In the first wave, a total of 767 interviewers were conducted among respondents married/separated/widowed or divorced. A second poll was carried out among 802 adults with the same marital status. In total, 1569 interviews among 860 females and 709 males were done. The margin of error for this study is the combined study is +/- 2.6 percentage points and is higher for subgroups. For more poll results click here.

About GFK Roper Public Affairs & Media:

GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media is a division of GfK Custom Research, North America. Specializing in customized public opinion polling, media & communications research, and corporate reputation measurement -- in the US and globally. In addition to delivering a broad range of customized research studies, GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media draws from GfK’s syndicated consumer tracking services, Roper Reports® US and Roper Reports® Worldwide, which monitor consumer values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors in the US and 30 other countries. Headquartered in New York, GfK Custom Research, North America is part of the GfK Group. With home offices in Nuremberg, Germany, the GfK Group is among the top-five market research organizations in the world. Its activities cover five business divisions: Custom Research, Retail and Technology, Consumer Tracking, Media, and Healthcare. In addition to 13 subsidiaries in German, the GfK Group has more than 130 subsidiaries and affiliates in over 70 countries. For more information, visit www.gfkamerica.com