Marriage specialists consider social messaging and online dating apps as major cause of infidelity. (Photo : www.eharmony.com.uk)
A Chinese marriage and counseling forum sees other man or woman as the leading cause of separation among married couples in the country, whereas smartphone dating apps take a bulk of the blame.
On Jan. 29, results of a survey from the China Marriage and Family Counseling Services Research Center was presented at the First China Marriage and Family Counseling Services Industry Forum in Shanghai which indicate that extramarital affairs are the number one cause of divorce in China, garnering 74.6 percent.
The remaining 25.4 percent contains other causes of marriage break ups, which include perennial separation, domestic violence and soaring house prices.
The China Association of Marriage and Family also noted during the forum how many of the divorce cases they have handled involved one party's use of mobile dating apps.
"In 2014, 15 percent of extramarital-affair cases we handled were related to social software," Shu Xin, the first executive chairman of the marriage and family group, explained.
According to Shu, people who were more prone to get involved in extramarital affairs include classmates, customers and office colleagues, which are worsened by the use of social applications on mobile phones both in men and women.
The polls revealed that 30 percent of the total number of extramarital affairs are caused by women's infidelity, while 70 percent were from the husbands' unfaithfulness.
Despite these numbers, majority of the victims of extramarital affairs choose to turn a blind eye on their spouses' betrayal.
Marriage specialists pointed out how China's law considers infidelity as a simple wrongdoing without any legal weight as a reason for divorce, thus leaving no concrete protection for the victims of extramarital affairs.
