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Tradition-affected U.S. couples least like to divorce in December: sociologists

Xinhua, August 26, 2016 Adjust font size:

Would you consider filing for divorce based on the time of year? Clearly some couples do. Researchers at the University of Washington found that more couples choose March and August to divorce, the American newspaper Seatle Times reported on Thursday.

Julie Brines, an associate socioloy professor at the university, and doctoral candidate Brian Serafini coordinated the research in Washington state from 2001 to 2015.

After studying divorce filings from 37 counties, they found December to have the least filings for divorce. The reason? The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

The two most important U.S. holidays featuring family reunions and religious sanctity is not exactly perfect timing for a divorce. Most people wait until March, the newspaper quoted the study as saying.

For the same reason, many broken couples avoid the summer holidays, when families usually have more time to spend together and hold off filing for divorce for the sake of the children.

As a result, the average number of divorces in December in Washington are 430, which jumps to 570 in March, and August filings reach an average of 558. Endi