The seven-year itch is a popular belief, sometimes quoted as having psychological
backing, that happiness in a marriage or
long-term romantic relationship declines after around seven years.
The phrase was used in the title of the play The Seven Year Itch by George Axelrod,
and gained popularity following the 1955 film adaptation starring Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell.
In his 1913 novel, The Eighth Year, Philip Gibbs attributes
the concept to the British judge Sir Francis Jeune.
The phrase has since expanded to indicate cycles of dissatisfaction not
only in interpersonal relationships, but in any situation, such as working a
full-time job or buying a house, where a decrease in happiness and satisfaction
is often seen over long periods of time.
The original meaning, prior to Axelrod's play, referred to scabies or
skin disease. The phrase "seven-year itch" was used in this sense by
Henry David Thoreau in Walden in 1854 and Carl Sandburg in
1936 in The People. Yes.
Divorce rates
The idea of a seven-year itch puts a specific time on the generally
observed phenomenon that data sets of married people show a rising, then a
falling, risk of divorce over time. However, statistical results from these
data sets are very sensitive to the statistical methods used, and such patterns
may just reflect the method, rather than any underlying reality.
In samples taken from the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics,
there proves to be an average median duration of marriage across time. In 1922,
the median duration
of marriage that ended in divorce was 6.6 years. In 1974, the median
duration was 7.5 years. In 1990, the median duration was 7.2 years. While
these can fluctuate from year to year, the averages stay relatively close to
the seven-year mark. Research from 2012 found that American divorce
rates peaked after about ten to 12 years.
Studies from China of marriages between 1980 and 2010 found that divorce
rates peaked anywhere from 5 years to 10 years after marriage, with more recent
marriages (post-2000) being more likely to divorce after shorter periods of
time.
Divorce rates in Finland as of 2018 show similar patterns,
"consistent with psychological notions of ‘honeymoon’ and ‘seven-year
itch’."
Media influences
The modern usage of the phrase gained popularity following the 1955 movie of the same name starring Marilyn Monroe.
In the film, a man sends his family off on vacation for the summer while he
stays back to work. He begins to fantasize about women that he previously had
feelings for, when his new neighbor moves in and he decides to try and seduce
her. Things go awry and he ends up not going through with it, but he believes
that his wife will somehow know that he is trying to be unfaithful.
Whilst the term was originally used for unfavorable conditions of a long
duration, the film helped to popularize its usage to refer to the decrease of
romantic feelings between married couples over time. The phrase has become so
popular that some couples use it as an indicator of the lifespan of their marriage,
an example being a Bavarian politician, Gabriele Pauli,
who has been divorced twice. She suggests after seven years marriage should
end, with the couple required to repeat their vows if they wish to continue for
another seven years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_seven-year_itch
Sharon and I were married in 1972, so 1979 was the mark of the
seven-year itch.
We celebrated by having another child, a girl. Ironically, she
and her spouse just celebrated THEIR year anniversary yesterday.
They celebrated their anniversary by taking a trip on the
Durango to Silverton railway.
If you would like to take the same trip they took, just click on the link below:
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