Meghan Roper recently wrote an interesting article in the New York Times regarding marriages in which both partners have gaps in age. While we have heard plenty of advice about keeping your marriage happy and thriving no matter what your age is, there is nothing more important than to consider the potential consequences of leaving such a gap. Some quick research would reveal that most of these consequences are directly related not only to age but to ethnicity and nationality as well.
For example, while the national marriage rate for those under 35 years old has been slowly declining over the last several years, the number of young couples with a significant age gap between them has been steadily increasing over the same period. This has led many more such couples to be forced into eventual separation or, more commonly, eventual divorce. If you’ve been reading Meghan Roper’s articles on marriage before, you’ll know that she believes that such gaps are particularly harmful for African-American couples. This is because, while some older couples have always been able to adapt and cope with the differences in age, younger generations often find their differences cause much emotional distress.
This is why the trend towards broken marriages with significant age gaps seems to be running rampant across races and ethnicities. What is the reason for this? Obviously, it is hard to know. There may be a biological reason (hypochondria perhaps?) but then again there may also be a social or cultural explanation that leads people to feel that a difference in age is an excuse for not living up to one’s potential in a relationship.