Department of Psychology, Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Jun 18;110(25):10135-40. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1222447110. Epub 2013 Jun 3.
Marital discord is costly to children, families, and communities. The advent of the Internet, social networking, and on-line dating has affected how people meet future spouses, but little is known about the prevalence or outcomes of these marriages or the demographics of those involved. We addressed these questions in a nationally representative sample of 19,131 respondents who married between 2005 and 2012. Results indicate that more than one-third of marriages in America now begin on-line. In addition, marriages that began on-line, when compared with those that began through traditional off-line venues, were slightly less likely to result in a marital break-up (separation or divorce) and were associated with slightly higher marital satisfaction among those respondents who remained married. Demographic differences were identified between respondents who met their spouse through on-line vs. traditional off-line venues, but the findings for marital break-up and marital satisfaction remained significant after statistically controlling for these differences. These data suggest that the Internet may be altering the dynamics and outcomes of marriage itself.
婚姻不和谐会给孩子、家庭和社会带来沉重的代价。互联网、社交网络和在线约会的出现改变了人们结识未来配偶的方式，但对于这些婚姻的流行程度或结果，以及涉及的人群特征，人们知之甚少。我们在一个具有全国代表性的样本中调查了这些问题，该样本包括了 19131 名在 2005 年至 2012 年间结婚的受访者。结果表明，现在美国超过三分之一的婚姻是从网上开始的。此外，与传统的线下渠道相比，通过网络开始的婚姻不太可能导致婚姻破裂（分居或离婚），并且对于那些仍然已婚的受访者来说，婚姻满意度略高。与通过网络和传统线下渠道结识配偶的受访者之间存在人口统计学差异，但在对这些差异进行统计控制后，婚姻破裂和婚姻满意度的调查结果仍然显著。这些数据表明，互联网可能正在改变婚姻本身的动态和结果。
