Your divorce depends on your occupation

According to researchers, the risk of having a rocky marriage and the incidence of divorce is far higher in couples engaged in jobs laden with stress and those fraught with exhaustion.

In order to analyze the propensity to divorce for major occupational categories, Dr Michael Aamodt, an industrial psychologist at Radford University in Virginia, devised a formula to establish the success of a marriage based on the career of one of the partners.

Formula devised by psychologists
Aamodt used the formula (separated plus divorced) divided by (total population minus never married) to yield the percentage of people in 449 occupations who had been married but were no longer together.

Rating the professions in terms of achieving a successful marriage Aamodt explained, "I looked at the divorce rate for each given occupation after controlling for gender, race, age and income characteristics.

"By controlling for demographic variables that might be related to divorce rates, we also obtained race, gender, age and income information for each occupation."

Results of the study
The results of the study revealed that dancers, choreographers and bartenders have 40 percent chance of splitting up. The risk of break-up was equally high in marriages of nurses, psychiatrists and those who help the elderly and disabled.

Chefs and mathematicians shared a 20 percent chance of splitting while journalists and urban planners had a 17.54 percent chance. Librarians, dieticians and fitness instructors had a 16.89 percent chance of breaking up.

In addition, travel agents, writers and police had 16 percent chance of divorce, slightly higher than fire fighters and teachers. Marriages of vets and funeral directors were likely to be a little more successful than that of judges and magistrates who had a 12 percent of ending in divorce.

According to researchers, the key to marital bliss was marriage to agricultural engineers, optometrists, dentists, clergymen and podiatrists which carry a 2-7 percent chance of ending in divorce.

However, shift work, overtime and weekend work made no significant difference to the success rate of the marriages examined by the researchers.

Fascinating research
Dai Williams, a chartered occupational psychologist and member of the British Psychological Society, stated, "This is a fascinating piece of research containing all sorts of surprises. It won't amaze anyone that relationships frequently break down under the pressure of jobs involving long hours and unpredictable working patterns."

He added, “But what is interesting is that those involved in caring professions experience a high level of break-up. This might be because they spend too long caring for other people at the cost of their own families, or because they are naturally sensitive people who are more vulnerable and sensitive in their own relationship,"

The research has been published in the Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology.