Here’s an interesting article from Chatelaine:

 Ah, love… It’s a magical thing. Well, sort of. Turns out long-term romance may not be the stuff of fate, soulmates or the stars after all. Relationship researchers say marriage is a science, and argue that they can predict – with a surprising degree of accuracy – whose love affairs will keep burning and whose will fizzle out.

We’ve identified some fundamentals for mastering the science of love.

Young love is for the birds

You married your high-school sweetheart: beware. According to Anne-Marie Ambert, an associate professor of sociology at York University in Toronto, many young people get married for the wrong reasons – such as pregnancy or over-the-top lust. “What’s the hurry? You change so much from ages 17 to 30, you might end up quite different.”

Women are from Venus, men are into Hockey

You like to knit, he hates sweaters. He loves Don Cherry, you’d rather watch a movie on cable. “If people choose someone different from them in terms of education, religion, occupation or attitudes about children, they’re in trouble right away,” says Alan Booth, a professor of sociology at Penn State University in University Park, Pa.

Brawling for love

“Conflict is just as important as love in an intimate relationship,” says John Wright, a couples therapist and psychology professor at the University of Montreal. “The challenge is to have fights that are as constructive as possible.”

Positives attract

Negative emotions such as anger and hostility that get much worse over time can send a couple toward divorce in just five years, says a study of 600 couples by relationship expert John Gottman at the University of Washington in Seattle. Being irritable and saying mean things can set up a grim atmosphere in a marriage – one nobody wants to stay in.

Divorce? Never heard of it

Married people who think about divorce are nine times more likely to actually do it, Penn State’s Booth discovered in one of his marriage studies. “We’ve gradually moved away from an attitude of ‘What can I do for my marriage?’ to ‘What can my marriage do for me?'” he says. “It’s become a self-fulfilling prophecy.” Children of divorced parents are also more likely to get divorced themselves.

Talk to me baby

Couples who don’t talk or listen to each other today are at risk for divorce down the road. According to Rebecca Cobb, a clinical psychologist

Let’s not live together

According to the 1995 Canadian General Social Survey, 63 per cent of couples who lived together before marriage split up.

You can’t always get what you want

Interested in having the perfect marriage with the perfect mate (gorgeous, attentive, fabulous-smelling, rich and talented)? Marriage experts say rigid expectations are a major risk factor for divorce. “We’re so used to the Hollywood thing, the idea that marriage should be heaven,” says Ambert.