Compared with the rest of the Western World, American relationships and marriages are suffering the most during the recession, according to a recent international poll. Almost 30 percent of Americans said the recession has caused stress and strain in their relationships—or completely ruined them. However, only 23 percent of Canadians, 24 percent of the French, and 12 percent of Germans have had similar experiences.

OK, already, I get it. The economic crisis has really sucked. More women are choosing to sell their bodies or their eggs to make ends meet. Dudes are living at home longer. And next year, the Metropolitan Museum Costume Institute Gala is going to be downsized. Can researchers stop conducting these polls and studies without offering any solutions? [Reuters]

Infidelity. I can’t decide if I’m totally shocked or wholly unsurprised by the U.K.‘s Daily Mail claim that French women get married knowing (and expecting) their husbands will cheat. When Brit Lucy Wadham married her French boyfriend she had no idea he would keep on keeping on in the bedroom with all of his ex-lovers. She details a night she unknowingly attended what’s called a partouze, subtle French for “group trysts”—only figuring it out after stumbling in on three dinner party guests in a guest bedroom. Infidelity was (and is) a way of life, she explains—and not without her own propositions, either!

This all just brings us back to the universal relationship question—are we or aren’t we built for monogamy? Is marital bliss something to work for or shall we think like the French and embrace our genetic need for multiple partners? [Daily Mail U.K.]

“Hitched or Ditched” is a one-hour reality show in which couples in long-term relationships are challenged by a friend to set a wedding date in a week’s time. The couples not only have to plan their wedding in seven days, but they also have to address whatever issues were keeping them from making the leap into marriage—from fixing relationships with future in-laws to dealing with feelings of jealousy. When the wedding day comes, the couples will have to choose whether to tie the knot or call everything off. So if they decide to get married, then their prize is a free wedding, but if they decide not to get married, then they breakup and have to deal with the ensuing heartache. That sounds a little unfair. But I guess if they know the marriage won’t work, then they’ll be better off in the long run. Will you watch “Hitched or Ditched” when it premieres May 26?

Britain’s Office for National Statistics released its annual Social Trends snapshot yesterday (much like our U.S. Census Bureau data), and it shows that 25-year-old women are more likely to have had a child than they are to be married. In the 1970s, 80 percent of women were married by age 25. Now, just 25 percent are married by that age. As for births, 50 percent of 25-year-olds had given birth, and now it’s 30 percent. So, birth rates haven’t increased—they’ve decreased, but the number of women who are married by 25 has absolutely plummeted in the last 30-odd years.

Women aren’t the only ones who have changed their lifestyles. According to the same report, men are delaying marriage for longer, as well. In the past 10 years, the average age a guy gets married has risen from 29.3 to 31.8. And, it’s scary but true: 30 percent of men between 18 to 34 still lived at home, while for women, the number was just 18 percent. It’s good that it has become much more mainstream and accepted for women to give birth before getting married and to raise a child alone, because men don’t seem to be stepping up to the plate—or leaving their parent’s house. Go independent women! [Reuters, The Times]

I’m in my late 20s and can’t get a man to marry me, but maybe that’s because I’m much more selective than Linda Wolfe, a 68-year-old Indiana woman who has been married 23 times and wants to marry again. Wolfe holds the Guinness World Record as the most married woman in history. In 1957, when she was 16, Linda Lou Taylor, as she was known back then, married George Scott, who was 31 at the time. Their marriage lasted seven years, the longest for Wolfe so far. She said her marriages failed for a variety of reasons—two of her husbands were gay, two were homeless, a few cheated, and one was physically abusive. She admits that her last marriage, in 1996, was for publicity, but she’s willing to walk down the aisle again. “Because, you know, it gets lonely,” Wolfe said. But I say she should learn to make herself happy and maybe join a hobby circle. [AOL News]

I guess that would make sense, since no one they invited to their wedding (if there was anyone to invite) would come. [Perez Hilton]

Update: According to an Us Weekly cover story, complete with photos (hmm, this elopement sounds super duper planned out), Heidi says, “The minute we said our vows, I couldn’t stop crying.” And of her disapproving mother? “I called her right before the ceremony, sort of hinted that something that happened, but her reaction was to ask me if we were breaking up! I told her it might be something else, and she said, ‘Well, if you ever plan on getting married just know that your stepdad is really upset that you want your father to walk you down the aisle. She was starting so much drama, it kind of pushed me toward wanting to get married without that. I don’t know when I’ll tell her.” Uh, how about before it’s plastered across magazines in her local grocery store? [Us Weekly]

According to an AP article, some busy singles are asking their parents to find their spouse for them. Why spend time going on endless bad dates when you can have your parents select your soulmate? Proponents of arranged marriages say the process takes the guesswork out of picking a partner, relieves the stress of having too many choices, and puts your future in the hands of those whose experience you may trust more than your own. While this way of matching people is popular among certain cultures, I can’t imagine asking my mother to find me a husband. I’d rather mess up on my own than blame my mother for picking someone I may or may not like, even if that means six months of bad dates. [AP via AM New York]

In the 1930s, Dr. George W. Crane, who ran a counseling practice and started his own matchmaking service, designed a test to give couples feedback on their marriages. Either the husband or the wife took the test, which rates the wife in various areas. Crane attempted to make the test scientific, but he did admit to using a personal bias and weighted the items he thought were more important in marriage. For example, a wife’s use of slang or profanity results in a five-point deduction from her score, and wearing red nail polish is a minus one. Amelia’s score was -3 and mine was -6. What can I say? I don’t dress for breakfast, and I’m lazy about sewing on buttons. Keep reading to calculate your score. [Monitor On Psychology]

The older a man is when he gets married, the more likely it is that his bride will be significantly younger—even if he’s poor—according to new Stanford University research. Men in their 40s tend to marry women who are an average of seven years younger; for men in their 50s, there’s usually an 11-year age difference; and if a guy’s in his 60s, his wife will be about 13 years younger.  “In first marriages, men are typically a couple years older than women,” said Paula England, co-author of the study. But, “the older men are when they marry, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s a first or a second marriage, the more years they marry down.”