Five times more men contacted Aim Family Services in 2004 than in 1980, according to figures compiled by Aim. The figures also show a dramatic increase in the number seeking help with property-related issues, and a rise in unmarried couples seeking advice.
Aim was founded in 1972 as a voluntary organisation for helping those in marital difficulties, particularly victims of domestic violence. It offers non-directive counselling, legal information and a family mediation service. It opened a drop-in centre in 1975 and started keeping statistics in 1980.
According to its statistics 36 per cent of those seeking help in 2004 were men, compared with 7 per cent in 1980. People are marrying later and seeking help later in their marriages. In 1980 42 per cent of those looking for help had been married for less than 10 years, whereas in 2004 this had fallen to 22 per cent.
In 2004 42 per cent had been married for more than 20 years at the time of their visit, almost double the number in 1980.
This reflected the older age-profile of clients, with almost two-thirds over the age of 40, compared with 38 per cent in 1980.
In 1980 most of those calling to the drop-in centre (92 per cent) were or had been married, but in 2004 this had fallen to 79 per cent.
Only 4 per cent of those dropping in had five or more children in 2004, whereas 16 per cent had this number of children in 1980. However, a larger percentage of clients in 2004 had children, 93 per cent compared with 86 per cent in 1980.
Although information on separation is still the main reason people seek the services of Aim, information on property-related issues has jumped to second place since 1980, up from joint sixth place out of 11 areas of concern.
Requests for information on maintenance also rose dramatically, reflecting changes in the law governing separation and divorce in the past 25 years.
Lack of communication was a complaint of almost 40 per cent of Aim clients in 2004, compared with less than 5 per cent in 1980.
There was a doubling in the number of people with financial difficulties (from 15 to 31 per cent), and increases also in those seeking help with problems relating to adultery and custody.
The number seeking advice on violence had fallen slightly, which may reflect greater recourse to the legal remedies put in place since 1980.