Hasty nuptials lead to high divorce rates for young
- Source: Globaltimes
- [01:26 September 30 2009]
- Comments
By Xu Shenglan
Many young people who got divorced in the first half of 2009 said they got married in a hurry without thinking through the decision, according to the Marriage Registration Office in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality.
Statistics show that 1,439 couples, most of whom were born after 1980, filled in the "hastily married" box on their divorce application forms, the Chongqing Evening News reported Tuesday.
"Most of the post-1980s generation are from single-child households and they are normally spoiled by their parents," said Lü Yuguo, director of Marriage and Adoption Registration Center of the municipality's Jiangbei district. "They are not as generous or tolerant as those born in the 1960s or 1970s, so their marriage is not sustainable."
"It's quite common that couples between 23 and 32 get divorced after one or two years of marriage. People at this age focus on their career and they are not emotionally mature enough," said Lü.
However, experts said it is not necessary to worry too much about the high divorce rate among the post-1980s generation as the marriage-divorce ratio is still within a normal range, according to the newspaper.
"Marriage registration offices are enhancing marriage counseling before marriage," said an official at Chongqing Marriage Registration Office.
Infidelity was cited as an important cause for divorce.
In general, there were 43,281 divorces during the first half of this year in Chongqing, which has a population of 28 million by the end of 2008.
Among them, 1,792 couples, in all age groups, reported infidelity as the main reason for their separation on their divorce application forms, the marriage registration office told the newspaper.
According to statistics from Chongqing Bond Business Consulting Company, a business which offers marriage-related investigation services, 70 percent of hotline calls are from married people and 50 percent of clients request investigation of adultery.
Government statistics show that 491,158 couples divorced out of 2,617,531 married couples in Chongqing between 1996 and 2008. And the divorce rate reached 20 percent.
