Studies have found partners with more than a 10-year gap in age experience social disapproval. But when it comes to our own relationships, both men and women prefer someone their own age, but are open to someone 10-15 years their junior or senior.
Couples with an age gap of 1 to 3 years (with the man older than the woman) were the most common and had the greatest levels of satisfaction. Relationship satisfaction decreased slightly for couples with age gaps of 4 to 6 years and continued to decrease for couples with an age gap of 7 or more years.
The truth is, there is no ideal or appropriate age gap in a relationship. Whether it's a 20 year age gap relationship or a 5 year age gap relationship, there will be both challenges and benefits to your situation.
An age gap of 10 years or more is considered a big difference. When one person has a decade more life experience than their partner, the couple might be incompatible. You're likely to have different circles of friends, different interests, and different life goals.
In what is thought to be the biggest age difference in the world a Somali man married his teenage bride despite a 95 YEAR gap. Ahmed Muhamed Dore, who already had 13 children by five wives, married Safia Abdulleh, when she was just 17-years-old.
Romantic couples with a large age gap often raise eyebrows. Studies have found partners with more than a 10-year gap in age experience social disapproval. But when it comes to our own relationships, both men and women prefer someone their own age, but are open to someone 10-15 years their junior or senior.
It has been found6 that people in age-gap relationships live longer. This is potentially due to differential fertility, the ability of the younger partner to care for the older partner into old age and economic security.
Well, according to a study of age gaps and marital satisfaction, the larger the age gap between the two members of a couple, the more dissatisfaction is reported. That's not to say it isn't possible to have a healthy relationship with a significant age gap, but it is certainly more challenging.
Stereotypes aside, many women cite maturity, wisdom, and financial stability as good reasons to date men who are older. But is there too much of a good thing?
Many people assume that age-gap couples fare poorly when it comes to relationship outcomes. But some studies find the relationship satisfaction reported by age-gap couples is higher. These couples also seem to report greater trust and commitment and lower jealousy than similar-age couples.
The dating age rule to determining a socially acceptable age difference in partners goes something like this: half your age plus seven (40 = 20 +7 = 27) to define the minimum age of a partner and your age minus seven times two (40 = 33 * 2 = 60) to define the maximum age of a partner.
From my understanding grooming can happen when there is some form of a relationship between a young and more impressionable person and a much older person (let's say like 10+ years) where the younger person is molded to the older person's wants in a way that may be inappropriate and even creepy.
Falling in love with a woman 10, 15, 20 years older, or more can be exhilarating. These so-called age-gap relationships with the woman as the senior partner are more accepted now than in previous times, some observers say. Even so, making the relationship last involves tackling some thorny -- and sensitive -- issues.
How many relationships have a big age gap? Across Western countries, about 8% of all married heterosexual couples can be classified as having a large age gap (ten years or more). These generally involve older men partnered with younger women.
Typically, young people like the experience and maturity of older men. After years of dating around, older guys tend to know what they want. Or, they might be interested in older men's security, refined look, or their sexual experience.
Who uses manther? Manther is mostly used as a playful term, but it can pack a punch as a way to call out sexist double standards about dating age differences and older dudes creeping on younger girls.
Power, money, and biology may play a role in initial attraction to older men, but that illusion doesn't last. The notion that men get more attractive with age is not exactly true, according to developmental psychologist Michelle Drouin says.
While a daddy is an attractive older man, a zaddy is a man "with swag" who is attractive and also fashionable.
"Half-your-age-plus-seven" rule
An often-asserted rule of thumb to determine whether an age difference is socially acceptable holds that a person should never date someone whose age is less than half their own plus seven years.
Absent children, however, there less need to stay together. Couples without children divorce more often than couples that have at least one child, according to researchers, despite numerous studies that marital happiness nosedives in the first year or two after the birth of a child and sometimes never quite recoups.
While age differences between couples may spark raised eyebrows, they aren't that uncommon. Though the average age gap between people in heterosexual relationships in the US is about 2.3 years,¹ many relationships endure with a much wider age interval.
He Makes You a Priority
If your guy is serious about the relationship, usually, he will go out of his way to make you a priority. He will plan things with you for the weekend and during the week too. The bottom line is, if he makes you a priority in his life, then you can be rest assured that he's pretty serious.
"There's no best age to get married. Men or women alike. Unless the person is ready. It can be the early 20s or late 30s.