Divorce and Remarriage

4/29/22, 3:58 AM 12: Divorce and Remarriage

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Summary: Divorce and Remarriage Looking back over the past 100 years, divorce rates have trended upward. The rate is affected by social and economic conditions (up after wars and during prosperity and down during economic

depressions). The rate since the late 1970s has declined.

Less than one in two contemporary marriages ends in divorce. The probability of divorce is correlated with a number of variables: cohort, premarital cohabitation, age at first marriage, the circumstances of the first birth, the presence of children, economic troubles, race, religion, and whether one’s parents were divorced.

The factors leading to a prediction of a declining divorce rate are (a)

high rates of unmarried cohabiting couples, (b) declining birth rate, (c) increased educational attainment of women, and (d) a diminishing gap between wives and husbands on gender expectations.

Divorce gives ex-husbands two major advantages: (1) an improved standard of living; and (2) increased personal freedom. There is one major disadvantage: personal isolation.

Divorce is much harsher for ex-wives than for ex-husbands. Ex- wives face personal isolation but, most important, they face a significant decline in their standard of living.

Although divorce is a difficult experience for both ex-spouses, after 6 years 80 percent of both women and men have moved on to build reasonably or exceptionally fulfilling lives.

About one million children are involved in new divorces annually. About 85 percent will remain with their mothers. How these children adjust to the divorce of their parents is related to their age and gender, family size, the socioeconomic status of the family, whether the noncustodial parent is nearby and involved, race, and the employment of the mother in the labor force.

4/29/22, 3:58 AM 12: Divorce and Remarriage

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Although divorce is a traumatic event for children, leading to some negative behavioral and emotional problems, the large majority does not suffer long-term distress.

Most divorced people remarry—3 out of 4 men and 6 out of 10

women. The probability of remarriage is affected by several variables: age for women, income and education, gender, race, and religion.

About 60 percent of remarriages end in divorce.

About 40 percent of remarriages after divorce involve one or more children, thus creating reconstituted or blended families. This greatly

increases the complexity of familial relationships, linking several households and creating stepparents.

Children in stepfamilies have experienced a number of major life transitions. Most adapt, but about 20 percent of these children are at risk for various negative outcomes.

Rather than considering divorce as pathological, we should

remember that there is also a healthy element to the breaking up of marital bonds. Some marriages are destructive or just are not working for one or both partners. Rather than being condemned to a life sentence in a dysfunctional relationship, the actors break it off. This event leads, potentially at least, to greater personal growth and the establishment of a new relationship that works.

There is a contentious debate among observers concerning the consequences of divorce for individuals and society. The conservative position is that divorce contributes to social problems such as poverty, crime, substance abuse, and declining school

performance. The progressive position is that although divorce is temporarily stressful, it represents a second chance for happiness for adults and an escape from a dysfunctional home environment for children. The research on divorce and its consequences shows that the reality lies between these two extreme views.

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The relatively high divorce rate does not mean that marriage is a failed institution. We conclude that the institution of marriage is not dying because (a) most people want to marry, (b) half of all marriages do not end in divorce, and (c) the vast majority of those who divorce choose to remarry.