Passage 1 About 79 percent married couples, who ended up getting divorced after separation, suggest new estimates of the incidence and length of separations. "Separation is very common and is more common than immediate divorce, "says researcher Dmitry Tumin of Ohio State University during a presentation at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America. "Most separations last one year or less, but a few drag on a decade or more before ending in divorce. Other separations stay unresolved. The decision to separate is driven by time spent in the first marriage, and for women, by the presence of young children, "Tumin says. He co-authored the research with a sociologist named Zhenchao Qian, also of Ohio State. He points out that when women have children younger than five years old, their likelihood of separating rather than divorcing right away is increased. The chances are that women are afraid that the immediate family breakdown will have a negative influence on the character development of their kids. The analysis is based on data from 7, 272 married individuals who were aged between 14 an 22 in 1979. Of those, 51 percent are still married. Among the rest, 60 percent report having gone through a marital separation, with most (79 percent) ultimately getting divorced. The research finds that the average length of a first separation is about four years. For those who divorce after separating, it's three years. And for the small number who reunite, the average separation is two years, the study finds. "In fact, we don't observe any separation that ends with the couple getting back together after a three-year period, so three years is the point of no return, Tumin says." After three years, the only outcome observed is ongoing separation or divorce. The research finds that about seven percent of separations last 10 or more years. Among aces and ethnic groups, he says Hispanics and blacks are more likely to be separated than whites, and once separated, they are more likely to stay separated than divorce.