Minimising the risk of divorce

BBC Three's series the Newly Weds this evening opened with the sad statistic that half of people who marry in their twenties get divorced. The question is what can be done to reverse this statistic?

In the line of work that we do, we get a unique insight into why relationships fail and we have a few ideas as to what can be done to reduce the divorce rate in couples who marry young. We think one of the most important things a couple can do is to sit down and discuss what they see their life as being like after they are married. The types of things we think couples should discuss are as follows:

1. How important is starting a family to both parties and when do they want to do this?
2. How are they going to structure their finances after they are married?
3. When they have children how are they going to raise them?
4. How important are each others careers?
5. How are they going to juggle work commitments and childcare arrangements?
6. What is their relationship going to be like with each others parents?
7. What are their political and religious views and how do those fit within the marriage?
8. What are they going to do to ensure that they continue to communicate effectively and love each other during the whole of their marriage?

With the stresses and pressures of modern day life marriages are under more of a strain than ever before. We hope that if couples face and address some of the most important aspects of married life before they get married it will reduce the possible areas of dispute after they have married.