From Psychology Today: Shared ambivalence “predicted divorce seven years later through its association with couples’ marital conflict.”

Compared to those who stayed together, “spouses who eventually divorced were more ambivalent toward each other and had greater marital conflict.”

The negative effects of ambivalence were present even in spouses who chose to stay together. Indeed, shared ambivalence correlated with “greater marital conflict and lower couple-level marital satisfaction.”

At the individual level, wives’ and husbands’ own ambivalence (rather than their partners’ or shared ambivalence) was associated with worse assessments of marriage, such as reduced happiness, lower marriage satisfaction, and a greater desire to end the relationship.

These findings agree with the socioemotional selectivity theory, which suggests that as we age, our goals change, and we become more selective (DUH?).

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