The study published last month in PLOS ONE examined the correlation between depression and the quality of relationships people have with their spouses, family and friends. The study encompassed a ten year period of time and involved 5,000 Americans so researchers could determine how interpersonal relationships affected a person’s chances of becoming depressed.

Study participants were asked a series of questions to determine the whether their husbands or wives were supportive. According to the Huffington Post, the participants were asked questions such as “How much can you rely on him or her for help if you have a serious problem?” and “How much can you open up to him or her if you need to talk about your worries?” to evaluate their “partner’s level of support.” Other questions were worded to determine if a spouse was critical and whether the couple had strained relationship, the Huffington Post reported

“Our study shows that the quality of social relationships is a significant risk factor for major depression,” says psychiatrist Alan Teo, the study’s lead author and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at U-M. “This is the first time that a study has identified this link in the general population.”

The researchers concluded that one in seven adults with low-quality relationships—those that lack support and have spouses or family members who are overly critical—will suffer from depression. In contrast, only one in fifteen adults with high-quality relationships suffered from depression.

“These results tell us that health care providers need to remember that patients’ relationships with their loved ones likely play a central role in their medical care,” Teo explained to MLive. “They also suggest that the broader use of couples therapy might be considered, both as a treatment for depression and as a preventative measure.”

The study also determined that it was the quality of the relationship instead of frequent social interactions that determined a patient’s susceptibility to depression. Dr. Teo explained that even if patient was socially isolated, having minimal interactions with friends and family, but had strong supportive relationships they were less prone to depression.

“Asking a patient how she rates her relationship with her husband, rather than simply asking whether she has one, should be a priority,” Teo says.

“The magnitude of these results is similar to the well-established relationship between biological risk factors and cardiovascular disease,” Teo says. “What that means is that if we can teach people how to improve the quality of their relationships, we may be able to prevent or reduce the devastating effects of clinical depression.”

People get married for better or for worse, but they also need the support and approval of their spouse. If a person is married to an unsupportive and/or critical spouse it may be in the best interest of their physical health and emotional welfare to get a divorce from the person who makes them miserable, unless of course they can work through those differences, which more and more couples are able to do since the U.S. divorce rate is declining.

Tim Lambesis, 32, was picked up by police while on a shopping trip in Oceanside, California after he allegedly solicited a hit man to kill his wife, ABC News reported. That hit man was an undercover detective, who approached Lambesis, after he attempted to hire another individual last week.

Jan Caldwell, a spokeswoman for the San Diego sheriff’s department told ABC News, “Information came to us last Thursday; we decide to initiate an investigation immediately.”

Apparently, San Diego police received a tip on May 2^nd that alerted them of the plot. Tim Lambesis, who is the front man for a Grammy-nominated Christian heavy metal band As I lay Dying, was served with divorce papers in September of last year and thought a murder-for-hire plot was the solution to his contentious divorce.

Lambesis is now facing three federal charges, including one count for solicitation to commit murder and two counts of conspiracy to commit a crime.

In her divorce documents, which were obtained by the Associated Press, Meggan Lambesis detailed her concerns over her husband’s changing behavior and questioned whether he was capable of caring for the their three adopted children.

The AP documents stated that Tim was often distracted when with the young children ages 4, 8 and 10, spending a great deal of time on the phone talking and texting and falling asleep while in charge of watching them.

She also said that her husband tours six months out the year and has traveled across the country twice to visit a girlfriend. She also complained that he has become “obsessed” with bodybuilding and has spent thousands of dollars on tattoos.

Megan and Tim agreed to mediation to determine child custody but those talks must not be working. As any previously divorce couple knows, a contentious custody battle can make anyone feel angry and out of control.

It is very shocking and sad, but it is not unusual for one spouse to plot the murder of the other when a marriage breaks down. According to the National Institutes of Health, two-thirds of all women who are murdered are killed by their spouse, but women too plot to murder their spouses. Each year, several thousand marriages are ended by homicide rather than through the court system; it’s such an unfortunate and common fact that the first suspect in any murder case is generally a spouse or family member.

There are better ways of dealing with this than a murder plot like hiring an attorney familiar with child custody laws. They can help temper an estranged spouse’s emotions and assure their client gets a custody arrangement that protects the interest of their child or children.

The Observer filed for the motion after a Mecklenburg County judge sealed the entire complaint. The paper though it was an “unusual move in a court system that typically allows widespread access to courtrooms and documents,” insisted that France’s wishes did not supersede

Observer Editor Rick Thames explained to WCNC. Com why they wanted the documents to be public, stating that the court system draws much of its credibility from being open. “Our main point all along is that our courts are open for a reason and we should not be making an exception in an individual case like this,” Thames said.

Lawyers for France argued that the documents should be kept sealed and closed to the public. But a North Carolina
Supreme Court disagreed and overturned the previous judge’s decision.

There is a lot of interest surrounding France’s divorce since he is the chairman of NASCAR as well as the owner of several motor sports teams based in the Charlotte area. He took the Chairman position after
France and his wife Mary, between 2001 and 2008, were married, then divorced, and then married again and divorce again.

Documents from France’s second divorce states the amount of support Megan France is supposed to receive along custody arrangements for the couple’s twin daughters, which stipulates that children must be raised in Mecklenburg County.
It also showed that according to the 2008 settlement, Brian France agreed to pay his estranged wife $9 million, along with $32,000 a month in spousal support for ten years and an additional $10,000 a month for child support.

After their second divorce, the couple agreed that if they sued each other in the future those proceedings would use their “best efforts” to keep their settlement out of the public record.

According the WCNC, the case began in 2008 when Brian France “won a ruling from Mecklenburg Judge Todd Owens, who granted him the right to file a sealed lawsuit against Megan accusing her of breaching the divorce agreement’s confidentiality clause.”

Confidentiality agreements are not unusual in high-profile divorce cases, since allegations can surface which could damage the either of the divorcing parties’ public reputation, and paint them in a negative light. Divorce issues such as infidelity or other marital misconduct can be kept from public scrutiny if the couple signs a one of these agreements.

Last month when reality star Kim Kardashian finalized her close to 18 month divorce from NBA player Kris Humphries, she insisted that Humphries sign a confidentiality agreement, keeping the final settlement amount from the public.

Breaching a confidentiality agreement is a civil matter, which gives the “harmed” individual the right to sue the individual who disclosed private details. The compensation awarded in these cases is largely dependent on the harm caused and other circumstances surrounding the breach.

On April 4, Porsha announced she and Kordell would be getting a divorce, telling a number of media outlets that she was shocked and “blindsided” by the divorce filing.

In his initial divorce filing Kordell stated ‘irreconcilable differences’ as his reason for seeking divorce, but that may have all just been a rouse.

Porsha also said she found about the divorce filing after Kordell made the announcement over social media even though he was just in the next room of their Atlanta mansion.

Later on that month Porsha appeared on Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Next,” where she told host Andy Cohen how upset she was he filed for divorce and admitted they were still living with each other.

“ I asked my husband … had he filed, and just a long story short, I felt very disappointed and let down,” Porsha said, “When I got married, I meant it for life. … I was heartbroken.”

However, just a few weeks after the news of their breakup surfaced, Kordell began having a change of heart. On his Instagram account Kordell posted a photo the couple during a happier time with the caption, “What y’all think???? Here to work it out? Y’all have been supportive so I’m asking, may not work, but I’m going to try.”

Now sources area saying that the couple dreamed the divorce drama for the attention since producers from the “RHOA” planned on dropping Porsha and Kordell from the show.

According to Media Takeout.com, “Porsha found out that she was NOT going to come back on the show – and both she and her husband [Kordell] desperately wanted to stay on the Housewives,” an insider close to the couple said, “So they figured if they created a FAKE DIVORCE, like NeNe did – it would be enough drama for them to be asked back.”

Media Takeout confirmed with one of the show’s producers that Porsha and Kordell were going to be dropped from the show, but after the divorce rumors surfaced the producers  decided to keep the couple in the “RHOA.”

If the divorcing filing was fake, would it make any difference? Although, the Real Housewives is supposed to be a reality show, viewers have to understand that some of the scenes and drama are a bit contrived, dreamed up to make the show more entertaining.

In the midst of reality star Kim Kardashian’s divorce, her producers testified that some scenes in “Keeping up With the Karsashians,” also on Bravo, were staged and even reshot for greater impact. Most of the fake scenes were with her now ex-husband Kris Humphries, which he believed were redone to make him look bad.

The think tank analyzed data from the U.K.’s Office of National Statistics to determine which marriages were more likely to last and discovered that on average, 45 percent of first marriages in the U.K. end in divorce—the statistics for the U.S. is equivalent. But second marriages have a better success rate and only 31 percent of second-timers are destined for divorce, according to the Daily Mail.

A number of factors are necessary for a solid marriage and the researchers believe that age, financial stability and

“Overall, second marriages do better because couples who get married for the second time are invariably older than those marrying for the first time,” Harry Benson of the Marriage Foundation told the Daily Mail.

The researchers believe that with age comes more financial stability; financial strains or instability contribute to a large majority of divorces. Benson explained, “Higher income acts as a buffer against some of the everyday difficulties faced by most couples.”

However, finances can be tight in a second marriage because of previous divorce and child support settlements.

Researchers concluded that second marriages are actually happier for men since they don’t face the same “societal” and family pressures they do that first time down the aisle.

Relationship counselor Paula Hall told the Daily Mail, “People in second marriages seem to have more insight and self-awareness. Having gone through divorce and separation, there can be more motivation to work through problems and save the marriage.”

This is promising news since couples have often been told that their second nuptials are doomed to failure.

Think tanks and legislators in the U.S. are continuously searching for ways to reduce what is considered to be an inordinately high rate of divorce. It was previously though that almost 50 percent of all marriages ended in divorce, but recent data from the Centers for Disease Control showed that the divorce rate has been steadily declining since the 80s; in 2011 only 44 percent of marriages ended in divorce.

In spite of this stable decline in divorce rates, legislators and family advocacy groups still see the statistics as alarming and are taking steps in individual states to make it just a little harder to get a divorce.

Many believe the high divorce rate can be directly attributed to how easy it is to dissolve a marriage. The large majority of states have a six-month or less period of time separating couples must wait before they can divorce. Lawmakers in some states believe this is too short a time, and there has been a recent push in states such as Washington and North Carolina to increase the waiting period to one to two years, during which time a couple must relationship counseling courses.

Divorce for some couples is just inevitable, regardless of whether it’s their first, second or third, and when a marriage just isn’t working these couples should move on with the help of a divorce lawyer.

Aldean and his wife Jessica met when they were teenagers and married in 2001, but now after 12 years the couple is calling it quits. They have two daughters together 10 year-old Keely and 5 year-old Kendyl.

In a statement released Monday, Aldean said, according to USA Today, “This is a really tough time for my entire family. Jessica and I have been together since we were teenagers. We’ve been through a lot of ups and downs over the years as we grew up together as a couple. She will always be important to me because she is the mother of my children, and I know that we will both always make our daughters our number-one priority.”

Aldean also asked that fans and the media give him some privacy, “I’ve learned that everyone always rushes to judgment when they hear news like this. That’s really hard because no one knows anything about our relationship but us.” He added, “I understand that because of my job, I have to go through a lot of this in the public eye, but for my girls’ sake I really wish people would give us some level of privacy and at the very least be respectful of them.”

The couple’s marriage hit the rocks last fall when Jason was caught in a minor cheating scandal. Aldean was caught on camera gushing over American Idol contestant Brittany Kerr in a Los Angeles bar, according to the Washington Post.

The photographer also caught the duo kissing, and it wasn’t long after that Aldean and his wife separated. The Grammy award winning singer quickly tried to do some damage control and took to Twitter to apologize to his fans for the “inappropriate” behavior.

He also told USA Today’s Brian Mansfield, “I think it’s a private thing. Unfortunately, it hasn’t stayed private. My main concern is, I’ve got two little girls at home that I’m trying to protect from all this stuff.”

However, celebrities live in the shadow of public scrutiny, and it is inevitable that when they make mistake of kissing or having an affair with someone other than their spouse they are going to get caught.

Cheating scandals in Hollywood are nothing new, but celebrities aren’t the only ones who cheat; in a 2007 survey one in five people admitted to cheating on their partners or spouse. Infidelity is one of the leading causes of divorce in the U.S. and can be nearly impossible for a couple to repair the trust between them and have no other option than to file for divorce.

Infidelity can have an impact on the final outcome a divorce. If a couple signed a prenuptial agreement an affair can void any of the provision in the agreement. Even without a prenuptial, cheating on a spouse will affect the amount of spousal support awarded and can have a bearing on a child custody arrangements.

When Frankel filed for divorce, she asked for sole custody of her daughter Bryn probably anticipated a bit of a battle over the divorce settlement, but what she may not have anticipated was that her ex was also going to ask for sole custody and child support. Hoppy also asked Frankel to pay for his and Bryn’s health and dental insurance; she asked for the same thing in her divorce filing.

Hoppy also asked for Frankel to pay his attorney fees.

Since both Frankel and Hoppy are asking for sole custody of Bryn, their divorce is heating up and the court is having trouble deciding which parent will get custody.

A source close to Frankel said the raven-haired reality star is “outraged” that a judge has ordered a parental evaluation to help settle the custody dispute.

The source told Radaronline, “Bethenny is furious that her parenting style and methods are going to be questioned. Bryn is her whole life, and she doesn’t want anyone to assess her mothering skills.”

Adding, “She does not want a complete stranger to come into her home and pass judgment on the way she nurtures Bryn.” And don’t expect a settlement to come quickly, the source said, “Bethenny isn’t going to give up her fight for full custody and neither is Jason. They’re both very stubborn and the court is going to have to make the ruling for them.”

Child custody is a contentious and complex issue for couples in the midst of a divorce. Whenever possible the estranged couple should try to resolve this issue through negotiations, but if one spouse believes the other parent is unable or unfit to properly care for their child then the court will have to make that decision for them.

Even though Frankel is angry that her parenting skills are being questioned, the parental evaluation helps the court make an informed decision on which parent is most capable of properly caring for a child or children. Court must make these decisions based in the “best interests” of the child, since parent sometimes use child custody to get back at their estranged ex.

A parenting evaluator is a neutral third party who evaluates each parent’s ability to provide for a child. The evaluator will observe a parent’s ability to take care of their child’s daily needs such as getting them ready for school or daycare, feeding the child, getting them ready for bed.

These parental evaluations are also used to determine which parent the child prefers to live with. In some cases the judge will speak with the child privately to ask them which parent they want to live. The child’s wishes weigh heavily on the final custody decision, provided that the child is old enough to make an informed decision.

In the fall of 2011, Jaimie McCourt agreed to take a $131 million cash settlement along a share of the couple’s numerous residences, in exchange for relinquishing her ownership shares of the Dodgers. When the former Mrs. McCourt took that settlement she was unaware of how much the Dodgers sale would net for her ex.

The team was facing financial ruin– which some blamed on the lavish lifestyle of the McCourts— so it was taken through a structured bankruptcy where it was sold from significantly more than Frank McCourt said the team was worth in the original divorce proceedings.

Now, Jaimie McCourt is back in court, urging a judge to correct her mistake. Last week, as Jaimie McCourt testified before a court she admitted she signed the divorce settlement against the wishes of her attorney Bert Fields, the Los Angeles Times reported.An email sent to Frank McCourt’s attorneys, Fields said he advised Mrs. McCourt to turn down the settlement because her ex had not provided enough financial information for her to make

In court Jaimie McCourt said, “Once the sale was announced, I really started questioning what was going on,” Jamie McCourt testified last week, “I was surprised I would’ve made such a huge mistake.”

Jaimie McCourt insists that her husband, under penalty of perjury lied to her and the court about the true value of the team. At the time, Frank McCourt said the team would yield only $300 million at auction.

The team was bought by group of investors which included Magic Johnson and the Guggenheim Partners for $2.1 billion. Had Jaimie McCourt not taken the original settlement she would have been entitled to $800 after taxes and debts, the Los Angeles Times said.

Jaimie McCourt’s only evidence that her estranged husband had misled about the value of the team is an interview with investor Peter Cohen of the Blackstone group who told Forbes magazine that the team was worth at least “$2.5 billion on day one.”

“When Peter Cohen … stated for many people that he knew from day one the value was going to be this high,” Jaimie McCourt said in court, the Times reported. “I knew — or I believed — that Frank knew all along what the assets were worth and didn’t tell me.”

But the Frank McCourt and his attorneys insist that they had no way of determining how much the Dodgers would sell for. According to Jaimie McCourt’s attorneys even if Frank McCourt had “mistaken” the value of the Dodgers, their client still has sufficient enough grounds to ask the settlement be overturned.

Even if Jaimie McCourt is able to get the settlement overturned, the couple could wind up arguing over who owned the team, the same legal issue that tied up the divorce in the first place. This should be a lesson to others; listen to your divorce attorneys, if they say don’t sign a settlement, don’t sign it; they know best that is why people hire attorneys.

A judge on Friday announced that a settlement between the estranged couple has been reached, the details of which are being kept confidential. According to the Los Angeles Time, the judge told Kim, “Congratulations on your dissolution.” To which the very pregnant star replied “Thank You,” with a big smile.

The divorce will be finalized as soon as the judge signs the documents.

So Humphries, who was not in court since he was preparing for a key playoff game on Saturday, did not get the annulment he spent the past 18 months pursuing. Humphries and his legal team have been working diligently gathering evidence in the hope of proving that the marriage was fake, staged to generate publicity and revenue, which would allow Kris to get an annulment instead of a divorce, an important distinction to the devout Catholic.

It’s somewhat surprising that the divorce was settled so quickly. Granted it has been raging on significantly longer than the marriage actually lasted– Kim and Kris were married for 72 days but building the divorce case took 536 days, according to TMZ’s math.

This case has had many twists and turns, causing issues with Kim’s unborn child and exposing how contrived some “reality shows” really are. Kim’s friends, family, current boyfriend Kayne West, ex-boyfriends, and the producers of her reality shows were all subpoenaed by Humphries’s legal team in the effort to establish the marriage was phony.

But it would appear that Humphries’s fraud case was going South since he finally agreed to a settlement. There were signs that things were beginning to go Kim’s way when early this week, when the divorce judge agreed to prohibit cameras in the court during the divorce trial which was slated to begin in May.

Kris was also facing fines for being absent in a key hearing last week because he missed his flight from New York to Los Angeles. But the judge today dropped those charges and he won’t face any penalties.

Though the final settlement is supposed to be confidential, sources told TMZ that Humphries won’t get any money from Kim. Looks like he should have taken that $7 million she offered him last year. Humphries also agreed to drop the annulment. Both of them will pay their own legal fees.

The Los Angeles Times reported that it was Kim who encouraged the judge to drop the sanctions against Kris.

Now that Kim is a free woman, people can shift their focus from her divorce, and instead can speculate whether their will another wedding in her future. Kim has been dating rapper Kanye West for several months, and is due to give birth to his child in June, so she may be walking down the aisle now that she’s no longer married to Kris.

And now a study from the U.K. shows that social media or more precisely how couples communicate through those channels, could make them dissatisfied with their marriage.

Researchers from the Oxford University monitored the social media habits of 3,500 couples including their emails, text messages, Facebook accounts and post in other popular social sharing sites. And despite the fact that communication is one of the keys to a successful a marriage, social media may be simply too much or the wrong kind of communication.

Couples who communicated with each other on five or more social media platforms showed a 14 percent decrease in the satisfaction of their marriages.

One of the researchers, Dr. Bernie Hogan of Oxford University explained to the Daily Mail that the disharmony may be caused by the stress and time it takes to maintain their posts through the various social media platforms.

Dr. Hogan said, “Using these media is great in moderation. But more is not necessarily better. We need to walk back from the idea that more communication by more media is a good thing.” He added, “It’s important to be accessible without being overbearing.”

But it isn’t just an overbearing spouse that can cause a rift in a marriage, a recent study from the University of Michigan found that the relationship between a couple and their in-laws can have an impact of the solidity of a marriage.

The findings indicated that men who have a good relationship with their in-laws had a 20 percent less chance their marriage would end in divorce. But for women the reverse is true.

Women who had a good relationship with their in-laws were 20 percent more likely to divorce their spouse. That is primarily because women identify strongly with their roles as a mother and a wife and good relationship with their in-laws can lead to meddling or interference in how they do things. This can caused resentment that can drive a wedge between a woman and her spouse.

Lead researcher and psychology professor at the University of Michigan, Terri Orbuch explained that while it’s important for parents to have a good relationship with their daughter-in-law, she warned parents to avoid being overbearing or butting too much into their daughter in-laws affairs.

There are a myriad of reasons marriages fail, but these studies help us figure out steps we can take to make certain we have strong relationships that last. And these studies actually might be helping.

According to data from the most recent Census, the U.S. divorce rate declined from 50 percent to 44 percent in 2011. Additionally, couples who have children were less likely to divorce than their childless counterparts.