Marital separation and divorce

1
Marital separation and divorce

• Is marriage 1. a voluntary contract that can be
  ended by either partner 2. a lifetime commitment
  til death do us part?
• (How did the women in Promises I Can Keep see
  it?)
• Gallup poll Do you believe that an unhappy
  marriage should be maintained for the sake of the
  children?

2
Divorce Trends and Comparisons

• U.S. Rates
• 1960 9 per 1000 married women
• 1970 15
• 1980 23
• 1990 21
• 2000 19
• International Comparison

3
Why the rapid increase?

• Legal changes no fault marriage
• Changing expectations best friend
• Cultural emphasis self-fulfilment
• Womens employment trends
• Mens employment trends

4
Should the laws be changed to make divorce more
difficult?

• The General Social Survey

5
How serious are the issues that usually
precipitate a divorce?

• Notice how this question was finessed in the
  movie.
• Whitehead Some people say as few as 10-15 of
  divorces involve marriages that are really
  irretrievably broken.
• Narrator So even by the most generous measure,
  many of these divorces are not justified.

6
Judith Wallerstein et. Al.

• Began in 1971, with 60 families, including 131
  children, aged 2-18
• At 5-year mark, half the men and 1/3 of the women
  reported being more unhappy than when they were
  married
• At 10-year mark, 30 of children reported bad
  relationship with both parents

7
Major surprises

• Sleeper effect kids (especially girls) who
  seemed to be doing well at first but had a very
  hard time later
• Unexpected legacy major impacts for children
  of divorce in forming romantic/sexual
  relationships as adults

8
Major criticisms

• Cherlin and Furstenberg, Divided Families
• Lack of representative sampling
• Lack of control group of children not
  experiencing divorce
• Basis for their book National Survey of
  Children, in which a representative sample of
  parents and children were interviewed at 5-year
  intervals8

9
Fading fathers

• Five years after divorce, nearly half of kids do
  not have contact with fathers even once a year.
• Why?
• Child support issues (social class)
• Parenting skills of fathers
• Very part-time parenting

10
Economic Issues

• Female-headed families six times more likely to
  be poor.
• Child support system improving but still not
  generous e.g. British system more sensitve to
  childrens needs and less sensitive to
  noncustodial parents needs

11
Child well-being

• NSC data In the last four years has your child
  had any behavior or discipline problems at school
  resulting in your receiving a note or being asked
  to come to school?
• 34 (children of divorce) vs 20
• Children of divorce doing no worse than children
  in intact, high conflict homes

12
Public policy recommendations

• Help custodial parent function better improve
  child support and collections
• Reduce conflict between parents implement
  primary caretaker standard for custody
• What about joint custody?

13
Single parent families

• Based on 2000 census, about 80 of single parent
  families are headed by women
• The number of father-headed single parent
  families has more than tripled since 1980.

14
Single Parent Families Typical dynamics

• Role overload and its effects on children and
  parents
• Lack of the balancing effect that may come from
  the second parent
• Economic stress the majority of single parents
  either receive no child support payments or less
  than ordered by the courts
• Relationship with noncustodial parent

15
Joint Custody

• Joint legal custody vs. joint physical custody
• Limiting factors on joint physical custody
• Jobs and household location
• Relationship of divorced partners
• Age of children

16
Stepfamilies

• Definition household in which two adults are
  married or cohabiting that includes 1 or more
  child from a previous marriage or relationship
• How many class members have lived in a stepfamily?

17
Stepfamily as an incomplete institution

• Doing the work of kinship
• Andrew Cherlin If there is no relationship,
  even a blood relative may not be counted as kin.
• Stepfamilies and created kin. Rules are few and
  dependence on the work of kinship even more
  central.
• Remarriage chains complexity and choices

18
Cherlin and Furstenberg Divided Families

• Step-parents quickly discover that they have
  only been issued a limited license to parent. The
  wiser ones among them accept the limits of their
  job description and bide their time.

19
Successful stepfamilies

• Divorce rates higher among second marriages than
  for first marriages.
• New marriage, rather than parent/child
  relationship, must become the dominant
  relationship within the family.
• Step-parenting and the age of step-children

20
Effects of stepfamilies the good news

• Most stepparents report they are happy with
  their roles and their new families. After a
  period of adjustment, most stepchildren come to
  view their stepparents positively, although not
  as positively as children view their biological
  parents. Cherlin

21
Effects of stepfamilies the bad news

• Children in stepfamilies no better off, on
  average, than children in divorced single parent
  households.
• This shows up in many studies, despite the
  obvious advantage in terms of economics and role
  overload.