A new study by Ohio State University has revealed that couples who argue on their honeymoon are more likely to have a stormy marriage over the long term compared with newlyweds that get on well. The study of almost 1,000 husbands and wives found little change in the rate of rows between them over the course of 20 years. As couples grow older together their rate of arguing is likely to stay the same,which will be reassuring for the 16 per cent who fall out infrequently and the six out of 10 whose rows are rare. For 22 per cent of couples who say they have arguments on their honeymoon,however,it is more likely that they will go on to do the same throughout their married life. There was a very slight decrease in the amount of conflict reported in the final years of the study,which was slightly larger for the high-conflict couples. Still,the differences over time were small, the Daily Mail quoted Professor Claire Kamp Dush of the University as saying. The researchers separated the respondents into high,middle and low conflict marriages and found those in the latter group were more likely than others to say they shared decision-making with their spouses. These people were also more likely than those who reported high levels of conflict to say they believed in traditional,life-long marriage. The findings were published in the Journal of Family Issues.
