Veterans twice as likely to cheat on their spouses as non-veterans

Infidelity and divorce are more common among servicemen and women, a study found.

Eleanor Barkhorn,
The Atlantic

November 12, 2012

By Eleanor Barkhorn

The Atlantic

Men and women who have served in the military have considerably higher rates of marital infidelity and divorce than the population at large, according to a 2011 study.

"Veteran Status, Marital Infidelity, and Divorce," a paper presented at last year's American Sociological Association Meeting, found that:

32 percent of veterans who were ever married reported that they'd had extra-marital sex, compared with 16.8 percent of ever-married non-veterans;
38.5 percent of ever-married veterans had gotten divorced, compared with 28.9 percent of ever-married non-veterans;