Read the Book(Uploaded) and write about the questions(each 1150~200 words)

and don’t get along as well with their spouses. As these researchers put it, when parents divorce, the consequences ripple through the lives of children who are not yet born.

The Absent Father and Serial Fatherhood With divorce common and mothers usually granted custody of the children, a new fathering pattern has emerged. In this pattern, known as serial fatherhood, a di- vorced father maintains high contact with his children during the first year or two after the divorce. As the man develops a relationship with another woman, he begins to play a fathering role with the woman’s children and reduces contact with his own children. With another breakup, this pattern may repeat. Relationships are so broken that 31 percent of children who live apart from their fathers have contact with their father less than once a month—and this includes phone calls. Another 30 percent have no contact with their father (Stewart 2003). For many men, fatherhood has ap- parently become a short-term commitment.

The Ex-Spouses Anger, depression, and anxiety are common feelings at divorce. But so is relief. Women are more likely than men to feel that divorce is giving them a “new chance” in life. A few couples manage to remain friends through it all—but they are the ex- ception. The spouse who initiates the divorce usually gets over it sooner (Kelly 1992; Wang and Amato 2000) and remarries sooner (Sweeney 2002).

Divorce does not necessarily mean the end of a couple’s relationship. Many di- vorced couples maintain contact because of their children (Fischer et al. 2005). For others, the “continuities,” as sociologists call them, represent lingering attachments (Vaughan 1985; Masheter 1991; author’s file 2005). The former husband may help his former wife paint a room or move furniture; she may invite him over for a meal or to watch television. They might even go to dinner or to see a movie together. Some cou- ples even continue to make love after their divorce.

We don’t yet know the financial impact of divorce. Studies used to show that divorce lowered women’s income by a third (Seltzer 1994), but current research indicates that the finances of the average woman with minor children are either unchanged or actu- ally improve after divorce (Bedard and Deschenes 2005; Ananat and Michaels 2007). There seem to be three reasons: divorced women work more hours, some move in with their parents, and others marry or cohabit with men who do better financially than their husbands did. We need more research to resolve this question.

Remarriage Despite the number of people who emerge from divorce court swearing “Never again!” many do remarry. The rate at which they remarry, however, has slowed, and today only half of women who divorce remarry (Bramlett and Mosher 2002). Figure 10.14 shows how significant race–ethnicity is in determining whether women remarry. Comparable data are not available for men.

As Figure 10.15 shows, most divorced people marry other divorced people. You may be surprised that the women who are most likely to remarry are young mothers and those with less education (Glick and Lin 1986; Schmiege et al. 2001). Apparently women who are more educated and more independent (no children) can afford to be more selective. Men are more likely than women to remarry, perhaps because they have a larger pool of potential mates.

How do remarriages work out? The divorce rate of remarried people without chil- dren is the same as that of first marriages. Those who bring children into a new marriage, however, are more likely to divorce again (MacDonald and DeMaris 1995). Certainly these relationships are more complicated and stressful. A lack of clear norms to follow may also play a role (Coleman et al. 2000). As sociologist Andrew Cherlin (1989) noted, we lack satisfactory names for stepmothers, stepfathers, stepbrothers, stepsisters, stepaunts, stepuncles, stepcousins, and stepgrandparents. At the very least, these are awk- ward terms to use, but they also represent ill-defined relationships.

Divorce and Remarriage 329

Af ric

an A

m er

ica ns

Pe rc

en ta

g e

W hi te

A m

er ica

ns

La tin

as

60%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0

50%

58%

32%

44%

Source: By the author. Based on Bramlett and Mosher 2002.

FIGURE 10.14 The Probability that Divorced Women Will Remarry in Five Years

Note: Only women and these groups are listed in the source.

Pe rc

en ta

g e

10%

0

20%

30%

40%

50%

60% 54

23

11 11

First marriage of bride and groom

Remarriage of bride and groom

First marriage of bride, remarriage of groom

First marriage of groom, remarriage of bride

Source: By the author. Based on Statistical Abstract of the United States 2000:Table 145. Table dropped in later editions.

FIGURE 10.15 The Marital History of U.S. Brides and Grooms