Census data has revealed some interesting facts, according to New York Family Lawyers. Couples with sons are less likely to split up, unmarried pregnant couples are more likely to quickly get married if the child is going to be a boy and divorced mothers of boys are more likely marry again and stay remarried.
This does not mean, of course, that daughters wreck marriage, New York Family Lawyers are quick to say. Research from 2003 shows that couples with a first-born girl were about 5 percent more likely to divorce than when the parents had a son born first. Three daughters can double that to 10 percent.
The research comes from more than 3 million adults in U.S. Census data, which means the data is probably not just some statistical anomaly. That leaves the question of why this trend is so. Some believe it may be that many don’t want to raise boys in a fatherless home. Or it may be that mothers are far more willing to leave a bad marriage because the presence of a daughter empowers the mother.