Husband and wives who enjoy a monthly night out can reduce their chances of splitting up, new research has found. Researchers found that splitting up is reduced by 14 per cent in couples who find time to go on a 'date' where they focus on each other just once a month. Holding the dates weekly did not increase the chances of staying together, and researchers found the effect only worked on married couples, and not co-habitees. Married couples have a 57 per cent chance of splitting, a figure that is lower than among co-habitees. Researchers Harry Benson and Stephen McKay, carried out the study. "For married couples, date night has a meaning," explained the researchers. "For the typical co-habiting couple, with a little less clarity and more ambiguity about the prospect of their whole lives together, the occasional night out has less meaning. It's less intentional, simply a night out." Of 9,969 couples surveyed, 11 per cent managed a weekly date night, 30 per cent dated once a month, 23 per cent went out as a couple less than once a month and 36 per cent never did so. However, other factors are more important in predicting the chance of staying together, such as education - graduates are less likely to split than the less well educated, and age; the older the couple, the greater their chances of staying together. © Cover Media
