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If your relationship survives the month of January, you'll probably stay together with your spouse all year, according to a survey of European couples.
Many couples patch over their troubles and make an intentional effort to get through the end of the year with its family holidays and gift-giving merriment without any outward signs of marital woes.But come the New Year, like a hangover, all those problems resurface to show what a farce the December merry-making was, according to the research coordinated and compiled by the German research institute Innofact AG.
Exacerbating the situation are all those Christmas and New Year's Eve parties that introduce frustrated and unhappy people to lots of happy, good-looking potential partners.
A flirt over a punch bowl or a kiss under the mistletoe may be all it takes to convince estranged spouses that other people think they are attractive and witty and don't nag and grumble the way their spouses do.
They wake up on New Year's Day to the grim reality that the party is over and that they face another year in the same boring old relationship.
So the bad news is that January is the month when the most marriages break up and the most engagements are broken off. But the good news is that relationships that survive the month of January are likely to survive the whole year.
'This phenomenon isn't caused by global warming, Cupid's arrow or a cosmic meeting of the planets, it's triggered by a unique combination of loneliness and resolution that just doesn't occur any other time of the year,' said Victoria Lukats, psychiatrist and relationship and dating expert who led the study.
The European Singles Lifestyle Study of 5,000 people between 18 and 50 was carried out in December. It revealed that 81 percent of those participating in the study said they were actively looking to meet someone in January.
Almost half (47 percent) were looking for a committed relationship, 13 percent a casual relationship. And 21 percent were so lonely that they were looking for any type of relationship.
'In January we think that most people resolve to lose weight, to go to the gym or even get themselves out of debt,' said Lukats. But for millions, she added, 'Looking for love is the priority.'
But like a New Year's Eve hangover, the sobering reality of January turns out for many couples to be the dawning realization that their own relationship, for all its faults, is not so bad after all, or at least that it is not worth ending on the off chance that a new relationship might be any better in the long run.
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