When I was recently teaching a college class about healthy relationships, several of my young students shared happily that they were engaged to be married. But when I asked them what they thought their chances were of their marriage surviving, the looks on their faces turned from excitement to anxiety. “50/50,” they said in unison, pointing to what they had heard from friends, family and the media. While there may be some truth to the idea of a first marriage having a 50/50 chance of survival, many people don’t realize that this may be the outcome of doing absolutely nothing to prepare for a great marriage or doing things the experts tell you not to do before you marry. In fact, one 2003 study showed that premarital preparation can reduce the likelihood of divorce by 30 percent.
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