What are the marital dissolution rates?

• A. They are generally low due to modern improved therapies.
• B. They remain high, indicating significant challenges in maintaining marriages.
• C. They have fluctuated wildly with no clear trend.
• D. They have declined sharply in the last decade.

Answer: (B)

Marital dissolution rates reflect how often marriages end in divorce or separation. The best answer says they remain high, which aligns with long-standing research showing a substantial portion of marriages do not endure long-term. This persistence underscores the ongoing challenges couples face in maintaining a marriage and why targeted skills and strategies, like those in the Gottman approach, are needed to prevent dissolution. In contrast, the idea that rates are generally low due to therapies, or that they fluctuate wildly with no trend, or that they’ve declined sharply in the last decade, doesn’t match the broader pattern observed in the literature.