there are too many factors to say its just one thing. My parents were married 51 years when my dad passed away. I on the other hand am on my second divorce so go figure!

Fraid not. My parents have been married for over40years. It gave me great incite as to how a marriage should be and what a good partnership should be like.

As common as it appears that most children of divorced parents divorce, it more has to do with the times as opposed to being in the genes. We can probably view in 20 years divorce rates will be 75% instead of 50% as they are today. Simply that the American culture (although I know divorce is in other countries), it's just more socially acceptable and EASY to get one today.
What should more be the case of people polled to find out how much better their lives are after the fact.
Additionally, if divorces end bitter then children do not see the good in staying with their partner because of what they "know" and see. It is still common today, of children who's parents stayed together, to end in divorce.

I definetly think it is environmental conditioning that contributes the most. Even if some of our parents stayed together it doesn't mean they should have or that they role modeled healthy relational behavior to us. My parents divorced when I was 16 and they had been married 25 years but we all wished
they have divorced sooner. It was a war zone.

I believe the epidemic of divorce is more is a symptom and is more due to the epidemic of abuse, dysfunction, substance/object addition, and just an across the board, global soul sickness. Science and Technology have contributed tremendously to further dysfunction of the human mind and the planet. And it is only intensifying and accelerating.
Just turn on the nightly news. The increasing violence and discord that we are inflicting on each other is global. Is it any wonder that the front lines are in our own homes?

Our society is more focused on having and acquiring (greed) than it is being conscious and present to self, life and others. We are all running around trying to fill ourselves up with things rather than having gratitude for what we have in the now, the present. Because of this fear, greed, and constant need for power personal relationships have become wrought with incessant conflict. Divorce is just a symptom of a much greater global problem. Unconsciousness.

I don't believe it is genetic per say but rather behavioral and is role modeled and handed down from generation to generation. Some stay married but torture each other for years while others opt out and divorce.

My parents were married 50 years too and I believe they live in their own personal hells within the marriage.

Yes and NO. My cousin and I were th e only divorces in our family..mine came after 26 yrs of marriage (not recent ex th at brought me here)...a few months after my recent ex and i broke up..my son's wife left him...I started feeling really bad...so did his father..we wondered was this our fault. Then we re examined things..we divorced after he had graduated college, moved away and married. HOWEVER...his wife's mother is on husband # 5 or 6 at this point.

My recent ex...well his parents had a rather contentious divorce when he was a young man, his own divorce was not the nicest in the world and there have been others in his family that were "less than friendly".

So I think it's more a matter of HOW the divorces were handled.

Just my 2 cents.

my parents hated and i mean hated each other with a capitol H..but never divorced

Of all the people I can think of I can only thing of one couple whos parents on both sides never divorced. For the most part I think if there is a divorce in the past on either side there is a better chance it will happen. That just personal observation and nothing else.

Me and my stbx (I don't even know what to call him since he hasn't filed)just talked about this on Sat. His family is full of divorces. I don't think anyone but his Grandparents stayed together. My family sticks together. My parents barely talked for 5 yrs. Slept in different rooms and now they are as happy as can be. I don't think it is genes but what you have been around when you were growing up.

More likely to come from the Jeans......
or the removal of.

I dont think divorce is in the genes. I think it has more to do with you as an individual and the choices you make in choosing a spouse. Both my parents and my XH parents were married--never divorced. We lasted for 10 years. To be honest, I feel that both sets of parents are dysfunctional and SHOULD be divorced. My poor dad is miserable and my mom has cheated on him during the marriage. Yet--they stay together.

I think in a second marriage situation you have to evaluate WHY and HOW FAST you remarried. I think there are a lot of rebound second/third marriages and that is why they fail.

My divorce was actually in her boyfriend's jeans laying in a pile on my bedroom floor but I digress. :)

both sets of grandparents was until death, my paretns married 51 yrs, her parents divorced when she was 13 or 14,who knows?

My mother is on her 4th marriage, his parents married 30+ years, so according to HIM, it is due to the way I grew up, because his family is stable...well, stability is in the eye of the beholder. If it is a pattern, it is one i tried despartaely not to follow, but in the end. The voids just got to big to fill.

Thanks everyone for your responses they were great. I put this here for someone else's benefit as well as my own and I hope she saw it and it helps her.