Commuters have a 40 per cent greater risk of ending up divorced, according to a university study. |
If you are reading this on your way to work, then your marriage may already be in trouble. Long commutes to work make it more likely a marriage will fail, a study has found. Those who spend a long time on trains or stuck in cars shuttling to the office are up to 40 per cent more likely to split from their spouse. The risk is highest in the first few years of marriage when the dream of life together gives way to the daily grind, the study showed. Experts said that if one partner - most likely the husband - spends 45 minutes or more commuting they would come home too tired to help around the house. This would create a ‘breeding ground for conflict’ that would leave the other person feeling like they are being taken for granted. The Swedish study looked at statistical data from two million Swedish households between 1995 and 2000. The researchers from Umea University cited the figure of 45 minutes as the kind of commute which could do damage to relationships. They found that in families where the man commutes, the woman is often forced to take a less qualified job closer to home, which means both less money as well as a larger share of the responsibility for kids and household. In the first few years of marriage the risk of divorce is 40 per cent higher if one partner has to travel to work. In Britain millions of commuters now take at least an hour to get to work and the number of commuters travelling for more than an hour has risen by 22 per cent in the past decade. Britons now endure the second longest commute in Europe at 54 minutes a day. Relationships expert Jean Hannah Edelstein said that unless both partners are commuting, then the commuting partner is going to be absent a lot of the time. ‘This means they have less time to do things with their partner and help out with the domestic chores. The commuting partner - who is more likely to be male - might feel like he shouldn’t have to take on equal responsibility around the home because he’s putting in the long hours back and forth to work. ‘But the partner who is home more might then feel she has been forced to take on too much responsibility and is being pushed into a more traditional female role. This sounds to me like a breeding ground for conflict.’ (Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily Website.) (Agencies) |
如果你是在上班途中阅读这篇文章的,那么你的婚姻可能已经有麻烦了。一项研究发现,如果上下班往返路程长,那么婚姻更可能触礁。 那些要花很长时间乘车或驾车上下班的人和配偶离婚的可能性比其他人要高出40%。 研究显示,在结婚头几年,随着对婚姻生活的梦想逐渐在每日的柴米油盐中瓦解,在这种情况下,婚姻出现危机的风险最大。 专家说,如果夫妻当中有一人——通常是丈夫——每天在上下班往返路程上花费45分钟或更多的时间,他们回家时就会因过于疲劳而无法帮忙做家务。这会形成“孕育冲突的土壤”,让另外一方有被忽视的感觉。 这一瑞典研究查看了1995年到2000年间200万瑞典家庭的数据资料。来自于默奥大学的研究人员指出,在上下班路上花费45分钟时间会对婚姻关系造成损害。 他们发现,在丈夫需要长途乘车上下班的家庭,妻子通常被迫选择一份工作地点离家近的不太理想的工作,这意味着收入更少,而且在育儿和家务上要分担得更多。 在结婚头几年,如果夫妻其中一方要长途乘车上下班,那么离婚风险要高出40%。 在英国,数百万的乘车上下班者现在至少要花一个小时才能到达工作地点,而且在过去十年内,在上下班路程上花费超过一小时的上班族人数增加了22%。英国人上下班乘车时间目前是欧洲第二长的,每日花在上下班路上达54分钟。 婚恋专家让•汉娜•埃德尔斯坦说,除非夫妻双方都是乘长途车上下班,否则其中一方会有很多时间都不在家。 “这意味着他们和配偶一起做事、帮忙分担家务的时间更少。乘长途车上下班的一方——通常为男性——可能会认为他不应在家中分担同样多的责任,因为他上下班往返的漫长旅途也是付出。 “但是在家时间更多的那一方可能会认为她被迫承担了太多责任,被迫去扮演传统女性角色。这在我看来就是孕育冲突的土壤。” 相关阅读 (中国日报网英语点津 陈丹妮 编辑:冯明惠) |
Vocabulary: commute: to travel regularly by bus, train, car, etc. between your place of work and your home (乘公共汽车、火车、汽车等)上下班往返,经常往返(于两地) shuttle: to travel between two places frequently 频繁往来(于甲地和乙地之间) grind: an activity that is tiring or boring and takes a lot of time 令人疲劳(或厌倦)的工作;苦差事 take...for granted: (因习以为常)对……不予重视;(因视为当然而)不把……当回事 |