TL;DR
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A Good Men Project article by Brian Page outlines nine factors associated with divorce, including hostile communication, financial stress, infidelity and substance abuse. The article says these are risk indicators, not guarantees, and its cited research spans studies and demographic data from earlier decades.
Brian Page’s article for The Good Men Project lists nine factors associated with divorce in U.S. marriages, from patterns of hostile communication to infidelity and substance abuse. Page says the factors are warnings, not predictions of an individual couple’s outcome; the source does not present new research or quantified estimates of how much each factor changes divorce risk.
The list includes criticism, contempt, defensiveness and stonewalling, communication behaviors that psychologist John Gottman has termed the “Four Horsemen.” Page says Gottman considers contempt the most serious of the four. The article describes criticism as an attack on a partner’s character, contempt as disrespect or mockery, defensiveness as avoiding responsibility, and stonewalling as withdrawing from conflict.
Other factors Page names are financial strain, marrying young, parental divorce, infidelity, substance abuse and growing apart. He also identifies the accumulation of several risk factors as a concern. The article says the relationship between premarital cohabitation and divorce is less straightforward than it once appeared, and depends in part on why a couple moved in together.
Page cites studies by Paul Amato and colleagues, a review by Frank Fincham and Scott Beach, and U.S. marriage-outcome data. The cited work includes research on reasons people report for divorce and factors linked with marital instability. The article does not provide study-level estimates, explain how the findings compare across populations, or establish that the listed factors cause divorce.
How Risk Factors Can Overlap
The list may help readers recognize relationship problems that deserve attention, but it is not a diagnostic test. A risk factor does not determine an outcome: Page explicitly notes that marrying young does not always lead to divorce and that his own marriage began at a young age.
The article also draws attention to how conditions can interact. Financial pressure may accompany recurring conflict, while substance misuse can add strain to an already troubled relationship. Page’s broader point is that multiple pressures may occur together, rather than each acting in isolation. The source does not quantify that combined risk or identify a threshold at which a marriage is likely to end.
For readers, the distinction matters: interpreting a list as a forecast could create unnecessary alarm or stigma. The findings described are better understood as associations and reported reasons for divorce, not proof that a particular couple will separate.
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Research Behind the Nine Factors
Page says he compiled the factors from existing research rather than conducting a new study. Among the references are Amato and Rogers’ 1997 longitudinal study, which examined marital instability over 12 years, and Amato and Previti’s 2003 survey of divorced people’s reported reasons for ending their marriages. The article says infidelity, incompatibility and substance abuse were among the reasons respondents identified.
It also cites a 2010 review by Fincham and Beach covering predictors of divorce and relationship dissolution, as well as U.S. demographic data on marriage outcomes by age at marriage. These sources cover different methods and questions: some examine reported causes, while others assess factors associated with later instability. Page’s article does not supply publication details for every data source or update the evidence to the present day.
“What I’m sharing does not guarantee a breakup, but it should serve as a warning.”
— Brian Page, writing for The Good Men Project
Limits of the Evidence Presented
The source does not report how common each factor is, its relative effect, or the couples studied in a consistent way. Its references span different periods and research designs, so the list should not be read as a ranking supported by directly comparable measurements. The article also does not establish that any one factor causes divorce.
The publication date is not supplied in the material provided, and much of the cited evidence dates to the 1990s and 2000s. It is therefore unclear how well the article’s summary reflects more recent U.S. marriage patterns. The cohabitation discussion, in particular, is presented without specific study estimates or a precise definition of the circumstances linked to higher risk.
What Readers Can Take From the List
The article offers no new data release, policy change or follow-up study, and it does not set out a formal next step. Its practical message is to treat recurring problems as reasons to pay attention, rather than as proof that a relationship will end. The cited research would need current, comparable data to show how these factors relate to divorce risk among today’s U.S. couples.
Page’s account also leaves open how couples respond to these pressures and whether support or changes in circumstances alter outcomes. Readers should distinguish those unanswered questions from the article’s documented summary of earlier research. No individual couple’s future can be determined from the nine-item list alone.
Key Questions
What are the nine factors named in the article?
Page lists toxic communication, financial stress, marrying young, cohabiting without a shared plan, parental divorce, infidelity, substance abuse, growing apart, and multiple risk factors occurring together.
Does having one of these factors mean a couple will divorce?
No. Page says the factors do not guarantee a breakup. The article presents them as possible risk indicators and does not provide a formula for predicting an individual marriage’s outcome.
What does the article mean by the “Four Horsemen”?
It refers to criticism, contempt, defensiveness and stonewalling, communication patterns the article attributes to psychologist John Gottman’s research. The source says Gottman views contempt as the most serious of the four.
Is the article based on new research?
No new study is reported. Page summarizes previously published research and demographic data, including references from 1997, 2003 and 2010. The source does not provide a current, unified estimate of divorce risk for each factor.
Source: rss
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