Pre-wedding jitters may be a bad sign - Daily Comet

Published: Monday, September 17, 2012 at 8:21 p.m.

Last Modified: Monday, September 17, 2012 at 8:21 p.m.

Those wedding cold feet may be a real signal of trouble ahead, according to a study that shows premarital jitters can predict splitsville later.

he four-year study of 464 newlyweds found those with doubts were less satisfied in their marriages; women with doubts who married anyway were 2.5 times more likely to divorce.

“Unfortunately, it doesn’t allow us to say if it’s doubts about the partner or doubts about marriage in general,” says UCLA researcher Justin Lavner. “Doubts specific to the relationship or partner are generally worse than doubts about marriage in general.”

In the study, online in the Journal of Family Psychology, 47 percent of husbands and 38 percent of wives cited doubts. Among women, 19 percent who had doubts were divorced four years later, vs. 8 percent who didn’t. Among men, 14 percent who reported doubts were divorced four years later, vs. 9 percent who didn’t.

“A lot of people have jitters â€" a subconscious feeling something may be off here,” says New York family lawyer Lubov Stark. “But they are swept away with the whole experience of getting engaged and getting married. Everybody wants to believe it will work out.”

The study also found that in 36 percent of couples, neither partner expressed doubts. However, among those in which neither partner said they had doubts, 6 percent still got divorced.