Living happily ever after needn't only be for fairy tales. Australian researchers have identified what it takes to keep a couple together, and it's a lot more than just being in love.

    A couple's age, previous relationships and even whether they smoke or not are factors that influence whether their marriage is going to last, according to a study by researchers from the Australian National University.

    The study, entitled "What's Love Got to Do With It", tracked nearly 2,500 couples - married or living together - from 2001 to 2007 to identify factors associated with those who remained together compared with those who divorced or separated.

    It found that a husband who is nine or more years older than his wife is twice as likely to get divorced, as are husbands who get married before they turn 25.

    Children also influence the longevity of a marriage or relationship, with one-fifth of couples who have kids before marriage - either from a previous relationship or in the same relationship - having separated compared to just nine percent of couples without children born before marriage.

    Women who want children much more than their partners are also more likely to get a divorce.

    A couple's parents also have a role to play in their own relationship, with the study showing some 16 percent of men and women whose parents ever separated or divorced experienced marital separation themselves compared to 10 percent for those whose parents did not separate.

    Also, partners who are on their second or third marriage are 90 percent more likely to separate than spouses who are both in their first marriage.

    Not surprisingly, money also plays a role, with up to 16 percent of respondents who indicated they were poor or where the husband - not the wife - was unemployed saying they had separated, compared with only nine percent of couples with healthy finances.

    And couples where one partner smokes and the other doesn't, are also more likely to have a relationship that ends in failure.

    Factors found to not significantly affect separation risk included the number and age of children born to a married couple, the wife's employment status and the number of years the couple had been employed.

    "從此他們幸福地生活在一起",并不是只有童話故事里才有這樣的情景。澳大利亞研究人員近日找到了夫妻白頭到老所需的要素，而愛情僅僅是其中的一部分而已。

    澳大利亞國立大學研究人員的最新研究表明，伴侶的年齡、情史、甚至是否吸煙，都會影響婚姻能否長久。

    這項名為"愛情的作用究竟有多大"的研究在2001年到2007年間，跟蹤記錄了近2500對夫妻或同居伴侶的生活，試圖找到影響夫妻分分合合的因素。

    結果表明，如果丈夫比妻子年齡大九歲及以上，或者結婚時男方不到25歲，離婚的機率會翻番。

    孩子也會對婚姻或伴侶關系的長久有影響。婚前就有孩子（不管是他們自己的，還是前次婚姻留下來的）的夫妻，有1/5最終都分開了，而婚前沒有孩子的夫妻中只有9%最終離異。

    如果女方比男方更想要小孩，婚姻解體的可能性也很大。

    雙方父母也會影響婚姻關系。研究顯示，父母曾分居或離婚的夫妻中，約有16%的人婚姻以失敗告終，而如果父母沒有經歷過這些，孩子離婚的機率只有10%.

    另外，二婚或三婚夫妻的離婚機率比初婚高出90%.

    經濟狀況當然也會影響到婚姻關系。16%自稱經濟窘迫或者丈夫（而不是妻子）失業的受訪者稱已分居，而在經濟狀況較好的伴侶當中，這一比例僅為9%.

    僅有一方吸煙的伴侶，最終分手的機率也較大。

    對婚姻維系危害不大的因素包括：子女的數量和年齡、妻子的就業狀況以及雙方工作時間長短。