Marriages with big age gaps are less likely to work

Marriages with a large age gap are less likely to work than when the couple is a similar age, according to new research. Although men might be happier with a younger wife in the early stages of marriage, it can sour in just six to ten years, the study found. Similarly-aged couples are better at dealing with difficult decisions as they are more in sync and will do much better in the long-run. Using research from 13 years of studying thousands of Australian households, researchers found that marriages with large age gaps are less resilient in the face of economic downturns.

Men reported greater marital satisfaction when paired with a younger spouse, especially in the early years of marriage - but the reverse appears to be true as well. . 'We find that men who are married to younger wives are the most satisfied, and men who are married to older wives are the least satisfied,' said Terra McKinnish, a professor of economics at the University of Colorado at Boulder and a co-author of the new study. 'Women are also particularly dissatisfied when they're married to older husbands and particularly satisfied if they're married to younger husbands. The study began in 2001 and participants were re-surveyed every year since with questions that measured their life satisfaction. Researchers looked at 7,682 households containing 19,914 individuals.