Innovative Study on Career and Divorce

Spending eight hours in an office, day after day, has the ability to slip into and influence every aspect of an employee's life, and a marriage is no exception. Could a person's career choice directly determine how likely they are to divorce?

Professor emeritus at Radford University Mike Aamodt, Ph.D., and one of his undergraduate students, Shawn McCoy, posed that very question in their pioneering study. The results showed that certain occupations have a higher rate of divorce than others.

The Washington Post reported that the study revealed dancers and choreographers had the highest divorce rates at 43.1 percent. This was followed by bartenders at a divorce rate of 38.4 percent and massage therapists at 38.2 percent. Other occupations with a high percentage of divorce were casino workers, telephone operators, nurses and home health aides.

The study also discusses the three occupations with the lowest divorce rates. It found that the jobs with the lowest divorce rates were optometrists at 4 percent, clergy at 5.6 percent, and podiatrists at 6.8 percent.

This study is causing people to question whether people are more likely to end their marriage because of the career they chose, or because specific personalities are prone to divorce and are drawn to those certain jobs.

The study isn't trying to sway people from marrying dancers or massage therapists. This study was so innovative because it gives everyone a glimpse at the relationship between two common elements that are a part of many people's lives: divorce and career; many hadn't delved into this connection previously.

Aamodt and McCoy's research for the study was quite unique to any research that had been done on the topic before; they collected data from the 2000 U.S. Census.

McCoy arduously requested the Census data from officials that the researchers could analyze to determine the divorce rates among Americans working in 449 jobs.

After seeing the results, Laura Schaefer discussed one of the reasons for this trend in her Match.com article. She explained that careers affect everything from a person's taste and lifestyle to stress levels to how they handle their romantic relationships.

One of the leading causes of divorce is stress, whether it is emotional or financial. Those who work or are married to someone in a high-stress level industry could be more prone to end their marriage due to the stress of their job.

This revealing study is not meant to steer someone from marrying their love, solely because of their profession. Griffith, a child custody lawyer, believes this study can help couples with spouses in those fields with a higher divorce rate be more aware of the stress they may endure and, in the event of divorce, be more prepared to handle it.

Couples with high-stress jobs should consider developing a prenuptial agreement. Especially if one of the parties owns their own business or has celebrity status. A prenuptial agreement alleviates some of the complex financial stress that arises in a divorce.

While certain occupations such as entertainers may have a high divorce rate, a person's profession is most likely not the only reason a couple chooses to end their marriage.