University of Denver News Releases

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

World Series fever: can it cure marital woes?

Relationship expert says yes and shows divorce rates decrease with MLB in town

DENVER ¾ University of Denver psychology professor Howard Markman offers a researched-based model of improving relationships based on a baseball diamond. Additionally, Markman shows new research that the divorce rate in the Denver metro area has decreased by 20 percent since the Rockies came to town.

In 1990, a year before Denver was awarded a major league baseball franchise, the metropolitan area’s divorce rate stood at 5.6 divorces per 1,000 people. Ten years later, and seven years after the Colorado Rockies played their first game, the divorce rate had declined 20 percent to 4.4  divorces per 1,000 people. In contrast, the overall U.S. divorce rate dropped 11 percent during the same time period.

            Howard Markman, director of the University of Denver Center for Marital and Family Studies, started conducting a long-term study looking at that question more than a decade ago, while Denver still was debating whether to build a stadium to support a major league baseball team. The study showed that cities with major league baseball teams had a 28 percent lower divorce rate than cities that wanted major league baseball at the time (such as Denver, Phoenix, Miami, Buffalo, Indianapolis and Washington, D.C.).  

            Markman also studied divorce rates in other cities that had recently welcomed a major league team and found similar declines in divorces.   While there could be many explanations for this significant difference, Markman stresses the importance of fun, friendship and being teammates  in a healthy marriage as well as rooting together for the home team:  “Going to baseball games is one way couples can have fun together and talk as friends and as we root for a favorite team we are establishing roots in our community.” 

While Markman can’t definitively prove a correlation, he says that “baseball still can be used as a model for a healthy, happy marriage.”

Markman uses a baseball analogy to explain how to hit a marriage grand slam:

  • On First Base we have the importance of handling negative emotions—any relationship that’s going to work must need a way of talking without fighting about the inevitable conflicts that happen in the relationship. 

·        At Second Base we have maintaining and/or restoring positive connections—the fun, the friendship, the romance…the reasons why virtually all of us dream of happy, healthy marriages for a lifetime.

 “Going to a baseball game and not talking about relationship issues, but rather having fun and talking as friends is one of the ways to protect and preserve love,” Markman says. 

·        At Third Base we have commitment and sacrifice.  Making a relationship one of the important, if not the most important, priorities in your life is crucial. “One must sacrifice at critical times in your relationship as a batter sacrifices by bunting at critical times in the game,” Markman says.  “Couples need to make their goals as a team more important than individual goals from time to time.”

·         On the Pitcher’s Mound we have doing your part, your own part, to be the best possible partner you can be for the “home team.”

·        At Home Base, we have being safe at home in terms of not having conflicts break out at any time, and safe from physical harm and danger. This is critically important to a happy, healthy relationship.

Markman’s baseball model of a healthy, happy marriage and 30 years of research on what makes for a great marriage are summarized in his best selling book “Fighting for Your Marriage.” 

“One way to get going is to head for your nearest ballpark,” Markman says.

To help Denver area couples reinvigorate their relationships, Markman is offering  research-based educational, fun and romantic couples  retreats, with the next one being the weekend of March 8th, 2008 within walking distance of Coors Field.  The programs are based on the internationally known PREP™ Program developed by Markman. Information about the workshops is available by calling (303) 482-7588 or log onto www.loveyourrelationship.com.

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          The University of Denver (www.du.edu), the oldest private university in the Rocky Mountain region, enrolls approximately 10,850 students in its undergraduate and graduate programs. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Denver as a Research University with high research activity.

 

For Release: October 24, 2007

Contact:  Howard Markman

Phone: 303-871-3370

E-mail: hmarkman@du.edu