Study: Cold feet a sign relationship is headed for divorce

A new study finds those who went into a marriage with doubts were less satisfied with their marriages. And women who went ahead anyway were 2.5 times more likely to divorce. (AP file photo)

Cold feet before the wedding is a strong indication a marriage is heading for divorce later, according to a new study .

Researchers at UCLA found those who went into a marriage with doubts were less satisfied with their marriages and women who went ahead anyway were 2.5 times more likely to divorce.

“I was astonished by just the number of people who have doubts at all,” says KIRO host Dave Ross about the study. “They found that 47 percent of husbands and 38 percent of wives had doubts on the day they were married. For the husbands its close to half.”

While the study, published online in the Journal of Family Psychology, found that about 10% more husbands than wives had doubts, the women’s feelings better predicted divorce.

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

“I found this surprising because the idea of cold feet is so baked into our cultural expectation of marriage,” says producer Andrew Walsh.

“Part of the cultural expectation of the wedding process is you get cold feet before you walk down the aisle. Your best man or maid of honor tells you ‘don’t worry about it, it’s just cold feet, everybody gets it’ and then you walk down the aisle and you live happily ever after.”

Evidently, that’s not the case.

Josh Kerns/MyNorthwest.com