Survey indicates "five-year itch" among Chinese couples

Instead of a "seven-year itch", Chinese couples appear more likely to experience a "five-year itch" during their marriages, a recent survey revealed.

Findings of the survey, sponsored by Peking University and matchmaking service Baihe, were published in the Monday edition of "The Beijing News".

According to the survey, almost one out of five people in their third to fifth year of marriage said that if given another chance, they would not marry their current better half and may not even marry at all.

Happiness and satisfaction among couples during this period are also at the lowest, indicating that such discomfort may lessen after this difficult time.

When work and family pressure combine, it is the wives who are more likely to be disgruntled than the husbands. The situation is worse among families with kids where fathers play little part in raising the baby.

The survey found that a couple's happiness may also affect their kids. Levels of happiness among children whose parents have a sound relationship tend to be the highest, while the lowest happiness appears among kids from families with parents who are separating.

The survey, which polled 74,000 respondents from across China, found that 22 to 28 was the most common age to wed, especially in big cities. Moreover, while over half of the respondents said their first love came before the age of 18, younger people revealed earlier first sexual experiences than previous generations with the average first sex at 22.17 years with people born before 1980 and 17.71 years among those born after 1995. Endi