Lesson 14 - Divorce

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Lesson 14 - Divorce
Robert Wonser
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Divorce in Historical Context

• Divorce is the legal dissolution of a previously
  granted marriage.
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Divorce Rates

• rend upward since 60-70s
• Divorce rate
• of divorces/1000 married ?
• Predictive divorce rate
• of people who had married in a given year who
  will divorce at some point before death
• US 40-50
• Russia 65
• Sweden 64
• Canada 45
• Israel 26
• Greece 18
• Italy 12

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Most recent census.gov data
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Divorce Rates, continued

• 20 of Americans have been divorced
• And for second and third marriages?
• Rate increases for subsequent marriages
• 60-67 of second marriages
• 73-74 of third marriages

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Most People Make Only One Trip Down the Aisle,
But First Marriages Shorter, Census Bureau
Reports

• On average, first marriages that end in divorce
  last about eight years.
• The median time between divorce and a second
  marriage was about three and a half years.
• In 2004, 12 percent of men and 13 percent of
  women had married twice, and 3 percent each had
  married three or more times.
• Among adults 25 and older who had ever divorced,
  52 percent of men and 44 percent of women were
  currently married.
• Just over half of currently married women in 2004
  had been married for at least 15 years, and 6
  percent had been married at least 50 years.

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Causes of DivorceSocietal Factors

• marriage not permanent
• changing family functions
• individualism
• social integration
• liberal divorce laws

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Divorce Rates Highest in the South, Lowest in the
Northeast, Census Bureau Reports

• National rates of marriage in the past 12 months
  were 19.1 for men and 17.6 for women. There were
  3.5 instances of widowhood for men and 7.8 for
  women, per every 1,000 people.
• Children living with a parent who divorced in
  2009 were more likely to live in a household
  headed by their mother (75 percent) than in a
  household headed by their father (25 percent).
  Additionally, children living with a parent who
  divorced in 2009 were more likely to be in a
  household below the poverty level (28 percent)
  compared with other children (19 percent), and
  they were more likely to live in a rented home
  (53 percent) compared with other children (36
  percent).

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• The economic well-being of those who experienced
  a recent marital event differed.
• Women who divorced in the past 12 months were
  more likely to receive public assistance than
  recently divorced men (23 percent and 15
  percent).
• Women who divorced in the past 12 months reported
  less household income than recently divorced men.
  For example, 27 percent of women who divorced in
  the past 12 months had less than 25,000 in
  annual household income compared with 17 percent
  of recently divorced men.
• Similarly, women who divorced in the past 12
  months were more likely than recently divorced
  men to be in poverty (22 percent compared with 11
  percent).

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• Women who divorced in the past 12 months were
  more likely to be living in a multigenerational
  household -- 11 percent of such women, compared
  with 5 percent of men.
• Thirteen states had median durations for second
  marriages for women below the U.S. median of 14.5
  years. This included six states in the Northeast
  (Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New
  York, Rhode Island and Vermont) ranging from 13.1
  to 13.6 years.
• Among those widowed in the last year, 77 percent
  of men and 73 percent of women were white alone,
  non-Hispanic. 

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Causes of Divorce Demographic Factors

• employment status
• income
• education
• race/ethnicity
• religion

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Causes of Divorce Life Course Factors

• age at marriage
• premarital pregnancy
• remarriage
• parental divorce

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Causes of Divorce Family Process Factors

• marital happiness and problems
• children

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Stages to Divorce

• emotional divorce
• legal divorce
• economic divorce
• co-parental divorce
• community divorce
• psychic divorce

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No-Fault Divorce

• Traditional divorce
• Prove marital misconduct
• Adversarial and expensive
• Winner gets money and children
• No-fault divorce
• Acknowledge marriages may not work
• No fault or blame attributed
• Both spouses share finances and custody

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Consequences of Divorce

• emotional and psychological consequences
• financial consequences

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Types of ex-spouse relationships

• Perfect Pals
• Cooperative Colleagues
• Angry Associates
• Firey Foes

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Kin Relationships

• How kin can help
• Listen, empathize, show love and affection
• Child care
• Discuss decisions
• Accept autonomy or dependence needs
• Daughters get more help
• Ex-kin contact involves children

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Child Custody

• Legal custody decision-making
• Sole or joint (parents cooperate)
• Physical custody residency
• Sole or joint (parents cooperate)
• 4 x more custodial parents live under the poverty
  line than married parents
• Courts decision best for child

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Effects of Divorce on Children

• Major disruptive life event that causes
• Emotional insecurity
• Confusion
• Uncertainty and anxiety
• Behavioral problems
• Cross-sectional vs. longitudinal research

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Single-parent families

• Fastest growing (not largest) family form today
• Most are headed by mothers
• Often tend to be at or near poverty line
• More common in blacks (about half today), and
  Hispanics (about 1/3 today)
• Transitional family form (tend to be on the way
  out of a relationship and or on the way into a
  relationship)
• Remember the marriage-go-round?

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Applying Theory

• Structural Functionalism
• Symbolic Interactionism
• Conflict Theory