Mediate Michigan

By the time Zulema Green turned 12, her mother had been divorced three times.

Her husband, Cory Green, was 3 when his father abandoned his family.

As the Georgia couple recently celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary at an upscale restaurant overlooking Atlanta, their milestone represented a far more personal challenge for each of them: They didn’t follow their parents’ footsteps.

“I figured I can get married,” says Zulema Green, now a 31-year-old attorney. “I can do it right.”

There are no precise statistics on the divorce rate in the U.S. because not all states report divorces. But among the states that did report, there were 3.4 divorces per 1,000 people in 2009, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

Experts say the number of divorces has risen since the 1960s because of laws making it easier and divorce becoming more socially acceptable.

After all those divorces in years past, it’s no surprise that in modern-day couples at least one or both partners come from a family with divorced parents. But coming from a family that suffered marital discord can present challenges to the relationships of adult children of divorce, marriage experts say.

The risk of divorce is 50 percent higher when one spouse comes from a divorced home, and 200 percent higher risk when both of them do, says Nicholas Wolfinger, a professor of family and consumer studies at the University of Utah and author of “Understanding the Divorce Cycle: The Children of Divorce in Their Own Marriages.”

Children of divorce are also 50 percent more likely to marry another child of divorce, he said.

Marriage counselors say they have seen marital strains affect the way a child perceives his or her romantic relationships. Zulema Green says she once approached her relationships with men cautiously. She had difficulty trusting and relying on other people.

via Children of divorce vow to break cycle, create enduring marriages – CNN.