新冠疫情导致的离婚率升高。英语读头条（第665期）
Why the pandemic is causing spikes in break-ups and divorces
为什么新冠疫情会导致分手和离婚人数激增
By Maddy Savage/ Dec. 9, 2020
Edited and Translated by Ray & Sally
Divorce rates are increasing around the world, and relationship experts warn the pandemic-induced break-up curve may not have peaked yet.
新冠疫情为什么会导致分手率飙升，离婚率在全世界都在上升，而婚姻专家警告说，疫病大流行导致的分手曲线可能还没有达到顶峰。
After seven years of marriage, 29-year-old Sophie Turner and her husband filed for divorce. They’d never discussed splitting up before the coronavirus crisis, but during the pandemic, their marriage soured. “I was more stressed, and it was all just building up, and we decided for maybe a trial separation,” says Turner, a support worker for children’s social services in Suffolk, England. “Very quickly we realised it was going to be more permanent than that.”
结婚7年后，29岁的索菲·特纳和丈夫提出离婚。在新冠危机之前，他们从未讨论过分手，但在疫情期间，他们的婚姻破裂了。“我的压力更大了，所有的事情都越积越多，所以我们说尝试分居，”特纳说，他是英国萨福克郡儿童社会服务的一名工作人员。“很快我们就意识到这将是一个更长久的决定。”
Their experiences are becoming increasingly common, with divorce applications and break-ups skyrocketing across the UK and around the world. Leading British law firm Stewarts logged a 122% increase in enquiries between July and October, compared with the same period last year. Charity Citizen’s Advice reported a spike in searches for online advice on ending a relationship. In the US, a major legal contract-creation site recently announced a 34% rise in sales of its basic divorce agreement, with newlyweds who’d got married in the previous five months making up 20% of sales. There’s been a similar pattern in China, which had one of the world’s strictest lockdowns at the start of the pandemic. The same is true in Sweden, which, until recently, largely relied on voluntary guidelines to try and slow the spread of Covid-19.
类似的情况也越来越普遍，英国乃至世界各地的离婚申请和分手的人数激增。与去年同期相比，英国著名的Stewarts律师事务所在7月至10月的咨询量增加了122%。慈善机构“公民咨询”报告说，如何结束一段关系的在线求助量激增。在美国，一家主要的法律合同制作网站最近宣布，离婚协议方面的销售额增长了34%，其中前五个月结婚的新婚夫妇占这个销售额的20%。中国也有类似的情况出现，在疫情开始时，中国是世界上最严格的禁闭区之一。瑞典也是如此，直到最近，瑞典主要依靠自愿的方式来减缓Covid-19的传播。
It's old news that the pandemic is affecting many of our core relationships. But lawyers, therapists and academics are starting to get a clearer understanding of the multiple factors feeding into the Covid-19 break-up boom – and why it looks set to continue into 2021.
这不是一个新闻了，疫情正在影响我们的许多核心关系。但是，律师、治疗师和学者们开始更清楚地了解导致Covid-19解体热潮的多种因素，以及为什么看起来它仍会持续到2021年。
At law-firm Stewarts, partner Carly Kinch describes the pandemic as “the perfect storm” for couples, with lockdowns and social distancing causing them to spend increased amounts of time together. This has, in many cases, acted as a catalyst for break-ups that may already have been on the cards, especially if previous separate routines had served to mask problems. “I don't think that the reasons that people are divorcing have necessarily changed. You've always had the underlying current of ‘I'm unhappy with this or that at home’. But I think it has just brought the focus on domestic arrangements really into much more sharp focus than they would ordinarily be.”
在Stewarts律师事务所，合伙人卡莉·金奇（Carly Kinch）将这次疫情爆发描述为夫妻间的“完美风暴”，因为在这种封闭的状态下，以及社交距离的疏远，导致他们在一起的时间越来越长。在很多情况下，这都会成为分手的催化剂，而分手可能已经是板上钉钉的事了，尤其是如果之前的单独的活动轨迹掩盖了这一问题。“我不认为人们离婚的原因一定会改变。总会有一些暗流在涌动，那就是“我对家里的这个或那个不满意”。但我认为，只是人们比平时更多地把关注放在家庭内部事物上了。”
catalyst：催化剂
Kinch says her team wasn’t surprised by the surge in divorce applications after England’s first national lockdown ended, since break-ups usually spike after families spend longer together, like during school holidays or over Christmas. “I think lockdown is essentially like those prolonged periods, but with enormous added pressures,” she says. What’s been different is the significant increase in the number of women initiating divorces, with 76% of new cases coming from female clients, compared with 60% a year ago. She believes this trend ties in with the findings of numerous studies of working parents’ lives during Covid-19, which suggest that a disproportionate share of housework and childcare is still falling on women, even in heterosexual couples where the male partner also works from home. She adds, “I think some people went into lockdown thinking: ‘Oh, isn't this going to be lovely! We're going to spend lots of quality time together. And my partner, who's normally in the city or commuting – they'll be around and they'll help more. And I think the reality for many has been a far cry from that.”
金奇说，她的团队对英格兰第一次封国结束后离婚申请的激增并不感到惊讶，因为与家庭在一起的时间通常较长，就好像学校放假或圣诞节期间，离婚申请就会激增。她说：“我认为，隔离基本上就像是把假期延长了，但还有巨大的额外压力。”不同的是，提出离婚的女性人数显著增加，76%的新离婚案件是来自女性客户，而前一年这一比例为60%。她认为，这一趋势与Covid-19期间对职业父母生活的众多研究结果相关联，这些研究表明，女性仍承担着不成比例的家务和育儿责任，即使是在男性伴侣也在家工作的异性恋夫妇中也是如此。她补充道，“我想有些人进入禁闭状态时会想：‘哦，这不是很好吗！我们要在一起度过很多美好的时光。而我的另一半，通常都在城里上班或在上下班的路上 — 现在他们会在身边，他们也会帮很多忙。我认为，许多人的现实情况与此相去甚远。”
heterosexual：异性恋
Additionally, relationship experts say the financial impact of Covid-19 is also likely to be playing a major role in break-ups, as people find themselves unemployed, furloughed or taking home lower pay cheques. “The number of divorces has tended to increase without exception during economic downturns at least since the Second World War,” explains Glen Sandström, who researches demographic history at Umeå University in northern Sweden. “Given that we are now experiencing a severe crisis especially economically, we expect that the end result will be an increase in marital instability.”
此外，婚姻专家表示，Covid-19的经济影响在情侣夫妻分手中扮演重要角色，因为人们因此失业、休假或拿着低薪支票回家。瑞典北部乌梅大学（UmeåUniversity）研究人口史的格伦·桑德斯特伦（Glen Sandström）解释说：“至少在第二次世界大战以来，在经济衰退期间，离婚人数往往毫无例外地增加。”。“鉴于我们现在正经历一场严重的危机，尤其是经济危机，我们预计不稳定的婚姻的数目将会增加。”
furlough：（允许）休假
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