  Understanding couple instability is a topic of social and economic relevance.
This paper investigates how the risk of dissolution relates to efforts to solve
disagreements. We study whether the prevalence of relationship instability in
the past among couples is associated with marital locus of control. This is a
noncognitive trait that captures individuals perception of control over
problems within the couple. We implement a list experiment using the count-item
technique to a sample of current real-life couples to elicit truthful answers
about couple break-up intentions in the past at the individual level. We find
that around 44 per cent of our sample has considered to end their relationship
with their partner in the past. The intention to break-up is more prevalent
among those who score low in marital locus of control, males, low-income
earners, individuals with university studies and couples without children.
