In an effort to evaluate a procedure designed to learn more about clinical and demographic aspects of marital separation, a telephone survey of 2,001 households in Boulder, Colorado, was conducted. The procedure reached a representative sample of the population and provided valuable information regarding the current prevalence of marital separation, as well as its incidence, duration, and modes of resolution. The likelihood of any married couple experiencing a separation was found to be nearly 5 percent in one year. The risk of separation appears to be far higher among the young than the old. Most terminated separations, after lasting about one year, end in divorce. Implications for marriage and divorce counseling, for community intervention programs, and for additional research are indicated.
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Bloom et al. (1977) studied this question.