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, and not the other, smokes 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.

    The study was jointly written by Dr Rebecca Kippen and Professor Bruce Chapman from The Australian National University, and Dr Peng Yu from the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.

    兩人相愛后快樂地在一起生活并不是神話。澳大利亞研究人員發現了維系一段感情需要什么，它要的不僅僅是愛。

    一對夫婦的年齡，以前的婚姻狀況，甚至他們是否吸煙，都是影響他們婚姻能否持久的關鍵，根據澳大利亞國立大學研究人員的研究成果。

    這個研究課題叫"什么樣的愛才能滿足一段婚姻",追蹤了2500名夫婦---結婚或同居---從2001到2007,通過比較一直生活在一起的伴侶和離異，或者分手的伴侶兩者之間的聯系來找出原因。

    它發現比妻子大9歲，或大于9歲的丈夫離婚的可能性是男的25歲前就結婚的2倍。

    孩子同樣也影響到一段婚姻的持久性或兩人親密程度，在結婚前就有孩子的夫婦---無論來自以前一段婚姻或者同一段婚姻---離婚的有20%,而結婚前沒有孩子的夫婦只有9%.

    女方比男的更急著要孩子離婚的可能性也大為增加。

    夫婦雙方的父母在他們婚姻關系中也有影響，研究表明父母曾經離異的夫婦雙方有16%離婚，而父母不曾離婚的只有10%.

    同樣，是第二或第三次婚姻的配偶比第一次婚姻的配偶，離婚的可能性高90%.

    不足為奇的是，金錢同樣對婚姻有影響，婚姻案中的被告指出他們很窮，或者在丈夫---不是妻子，被解雇的地方說他們要離婚的有16%,而有良好財務狀況的夫婦只有9%.

    而夫婦只有一方吸煙的也更為可能以失敗的婚姻告終。

    結婚夫婦擁有孩子的多少和年齡，妻子就業率，夫婦工作的時間，這些因素對離婚的風險不會有太大的影響。

    這個研究成果是由來自澳大利亞國立大學的樂思·其朋博士，和來自家庭、住房、社區服務和土著事務部門的彭語博士共同著述的。