Forget chocolates and the flowers, gentlemen – the key to a happy marriage may be as simple as getting on with your wife’s friends.

忘掉巧克力和鲜花吧，汉子们——幸福婚姻的关键可能只是要你和妻子的朋友和睦相处就行。

A new study reveals that husbands who disapprove¹ of their wife’s chums are twice as likely to get divorced. However, women do not have to like their husband’s friends for their marriage to survive.

据一项最新研究显示，那些不喜欢妻子朋友的人离婚概率是其他人的两倍。然而，女人却不必为了维持一段婚姻而去刻意喜欢丈夫的朋友。

Researchers believe that women are less willing to give up their friends – even when they are disliked by their husbands. In contrast, men will ditch people if their wives do not like them.

研究人员认为，女性对自己的朋友看得更重、更不愿放弃——即使这些朋友不招她们丈夫待见。相反，如果自己妻子不喜欢，男人就会和这些朋友断交。

Women are also more likely to discuss marital² problems with friends, which increases the risk of marriage difficulties and divorce.

女性也更有可能和朋友讨论婚姻问题，这也增大了婚姻困难和离婚的风险。

The study, by researchers at Adelphi University and other centres in America, tracked 400 couples over a 16-year period to compare the risk of divorce with the couples’ attitudes to spouses⁴’ friends.

这项研究由阿德尔菲大学及美国其他中心的研究人员共同进行，在16年的时间里对400对夫妻进行了追踪调查，对夫妻离婚的风险、以及他们对配偶朋友的态度进行了比较。

In the first year, couples were asked if their spouse³ had friends who they would rather they did not spend time with. Couples were asked the next year about interference from friends.

在第一年里，夫妻们被问到是否不愿意和配偶的朋友相处。第二年他们则被问到来自朋友们的干扰。

The results show that 44 per cent of wives and 29 per cent of husbands said their spouse had pals⁵ that they would rather he or she did not spend time with.

结果表明，44%的妻子们和29%的丈夫们表示不希望另一半和他们的某些朋友交往。

They also show that the more husbands disapproved⁶ of their wife’s friends, the greater the risk of divorce over the following 16 years, even after other factors were taken into account.

研究人员还表明，丈夫们越不满自己妻子的朋友，那么在接下来16年里他们离婚的风险就越大——即使考虑到了其他因素。

Writing in the Journal Of Social And Personal Relationships, the researchers said: ‘Wives may turn to friends for solutions to problems, including marital issues, and their husbands may perceive these social interactions as interfering⁷ in their marriage if they do not fully approve of these friends.’

该研究刊载在《个人和社会关系》杂志，研究人员表示：“妻子们可能会向朋友寻求解决问题的方法，其中就包括婚姻的问题。而如果丈夫们不满意妻子的这些朋友，他们就会把这些社交活动视为对自己婚姻的干扰。”

One of the authors, Dr Amy Rauer, said: ‘Although having a larger support network can be beneficial, merging⁸ two separate sets of family and friends can be a challenging process for couples.’

作者之一的艾米·劳尔博士说道：“虽然拥有一个广泛的社交网络很有益，但是把两群不同的亲友合在一起对夫妻来说可能是一个极具挑战性的过程。”