That is a fact, but the basis of the fact is not that marriages were more successful. I am confident that older couples here could tell us a lot about misery existing in marriages in the first half of this century. Abuse, neglect, adultery, and incest are not new. Individual rights were virtually nonexistent, and no matter how severe circumstances were, there were few options and few places to turn for help. A significant factor in the rise of the feminist movement in our society was the exploitation of the woman in too many marriages in past generations.
Troubled marriages exist for a long list of reasons.
May I suggest four very common reasons. They grew up in a divorced home, a seriously dysfunctional home, a seriously troubled home, or a home in which there was little togetherness or interaction. They were deprived of the opportunity to see a loving, successful marriage relationship as it functioned. Their concepts of what a husband is to be or what a wife is to be is seriously, dangerously flawed long before they marry. They distrust God's principles that produce marital companionship.