This news won’t shock many parents: Having a kid puts a sudden, drastic strain on a marriage, according to new research from the University of Denver. For 90 percent of couples, marital bliss dives within a year after the birth of their first child. But don’t assume staying childless is the secret to making a marriage happier over the long haul. The eight-year study of 218 Denver-area couples found that while those who had a child experienced an immediate dip in marital satisfaction, couples who did not also became less happy - just gradually. Couples who were the most romantic before children got the ‘biggest jolt at baby time,’ said Scott Stanley, a DU psychology professor. Couples who had babies right away, within a year or so of getting married, and couples with lower incomes also had more substantial drops in marital satisfaction. ‘Declines are somewhat normal in marriage,’ Stanley said. ‘For those having children, they are going to be more concentrated around the time that you have children.’ What the study doesn’t capture: the richer, longer-lasting contentment that comes with building a family, he said. ‘While there is a strain on the […]