London: Newly wed couples get tired of their partners within five years of marriage, earlier it was seven years itch, according to a new research.

Those, likely to remain married for good, who manage to make it ten years. Researchers found that couples start fed up with each other after four years and are at peak risk of divorcee before their fifth anniversary.

The scientists in America, Russia and Scandinavia examining the longevity of relationships found that the “honeymoon period” lasts for less than five years,
disillusionment and disaffection often set in by the end of that period. The major cause is that more women were pursuing careers that placed extra stress on relationship and divorce had become increasingly acceptable.

Aiva Jasilioniene, in a working paper from the Max Planck Institute in Germany, “One of the explanations for these changes in divorce risk is that during the first decade of marriage both partners go through crucial life-course transitions and challenging experiences – completion of education, building career, bearing children, and so on. During the later years, the couple has developed strategies to deal with problems as they arise.”

Couples who marry young and those living in urban areas are more likely to divorce. Wedding at an older age contributes to marital stability.

In UK, the Tories have proposed tax breaks for married couples, who tend to stay longer and whose children tend to be healthier, do better in school, and get better jobs

than children from broken or single-parent families.