Research on Divorce: Continuing Trends and New Developments

“On the whole, our results do not stand in contrast to prior literature indicating that, on average, children in stable, two-biological-parent families fare better on a wide range of outcomes than those in all other family types (Amato 2005, 2010; Waldfogel et al. 2010).”

“Hypothesis 4: Relationship quality and social support: Poorer relationship quality and less social support would predict dissolution among female–female couples (Amato, 2010; Røsand, Slinning, Rǿysamb, & Tambs, 2014).”

“other factors are related to divorce in the general population (Amato, 2010; White, 1990) and thus we examine their relevance for gray divorce.”

“A large body of research has shown that children whose fathers are present in the home have fewer behavioural and emotional problems than children with non-resident fathers (Amato 2010; Burt et al. 2008; Culpin et al. 2013; Flouri et al. 2015; McLanahan et al. 2013).”

“…for almost 50 years (Lazarus, 1966) but seems more relevant than ever, as the prevalence of several negative life events—including getting a divorce (Amato, 2010) and being faced with a mental health issue (Collishaw, Maughan, Goodman, & Pickles, 2004)—has increased since Lazarus’ pioneering work.”

“…and assessment challenges of unresolved high conflict within separated families, research studies have consistently reported the negative consequences of high conflict for parents and their children (Amato, 2001, 2010; Booth & Amato, 2001; Kelly, 2000; Kelly & Emery, 2003; Kelly & Lamb, 2000).”

“Ending marriage with divorce, on the other hand, is more likely to have greater social, psychological, and financial implications, including a negative impact on well-being, physical and mental health, and child outcomes (Amato 2010).”

“…on divorce have focused on a range of topics including predictors of divorce, adults’ and children’s adjustment to divorce, consequences of divorce for men and women, associations between divorce and the well-being of divorced individuals, and interventions for divorcing couples (Amato, 2010).”

“The reasons for divorce have been a major topic of research and have been comprehensively reviewed elsewhere [46].”

“And despite improvements in children's standard of living when custodial mothers remarry, children in stepfather families are no better off on most emotional and behavioral indicators than are children in single-mother households (Amato, 2010; Sweeney, 2010).”

“Attention to this topic arises from the divergence in marital entry and stability along racial and socioeconomic lines, and the subsequent effects of this instability on children, families, and the broader society (Amato 2010, 2012; Lerman 2013; Trail and Karney 2012).”

“…on children are irreversible and devastating, and that children carry a long-lasting, traumatic burden years after the divorce, particularly in terms of psychological wellbeing and social relationships (e.g., Amato 2000, 2010; Hetherington 2006; Sun 2001; Sun and Li 2002; Wolfinger 2000, 2005).”

“KEYWORDS divorce, marital satisfaction, marriage length, remarriages With 50% of first marriages and 60% of second marriages ending in divorce (Amato, 2010), clinicians and researchers are often left wondering why an elevated risk exists for remarriages.”

“, 2010), sibling fixedeffects models have been established as one way of addressing issues of selection bias in studies of family structure (Amato, 2010).”

“However, it is estimated that between 40% and 50% of all marriages end in divorce (Amato, 2010; Cherlin, 2010).”

“Several studies have addressed specific divorce- and stepfamily-related stressors (see Amato 2010 and Sweeney 2010 for reviews of these issues).”

“More recent reviews of the divorce literature continue to reveal negative outcomes for divorcees (Amato, 2010).”

“However, we know little about the reasons for educated women’s higher marital stability (Amato 2010: 661).”

“In light of the prevalence of divorce and its association with negative outcomes, researchers have extensively studied the effects of divorce on children (Amato, 2001, 2010; Amato & Keith, 1991; Cherlin et al., 1991; Emery, 1999).”

“These heritable characteristics may also be passed onto their children, increasing the children’s risk of problem behaviors (e.g., Amato, 2010).”

“While slightly less than half of marriages will end in divorce, other union types are more likely to dissolve (Amato, 2010).”

“…that self-esteem is lowest in young and late adolescence and increases in adulthood; e.g., Robins et al. 2002), and parental marital status (research has found that those from divorced families have slightly lower self-esteem and wellbeing relative to those from intact families; e.g., Amato 2010).”

“…emotional, and economic health whereas failure to establish such social bonds predicts physical, emotional and economic distress for adults (Amato, 2010; Beach & Whisman, 2012; Gottman, 1994; Wade & Pevalin, 2005; Wickrama, Lorenz, Conger & Elder, 1997) as well as children (Amato, 2010;…”

“Understanding the impacts of divorce remains a central topic of inquiry and public policy concern (Amato, 2010; Burstein, 2007), but whether divorce represents a turning point which signals a sharp departure of women from their prior labor market behavior remains less understood.”

“A low level of marital happiness is not the only predictor of divorce (Amato, 2010); happy marriages may also end in divorce due to stressful life events, low commitment, and negative communication (Amato & Hohmann-Marriot, 2007; Lavner & Brabury, 2012).”

“child is male, and in households with more children and without stepchildren (for reviews of divorce risk factors, fathering, and families with young children see Aldous, Mulligan, & Bjarnason, 1998; Amato, 2010; Demo & Cox, 2000).”

“This technique has also been used in the divorce literature (see Björklund and Sundström 2006 or Amato 2010).”

“Despite growing research efforts aimed at untangling differences in stress and coping within the divorcee group (for an overview see Amato, 2010, pp. 659–660), what is known about the impact of the divorce process itself remains scant.”

“biologically related to at least one parent, such a result would suggest that social environmental factors were the key factors influencing the child rather than parental DNA (Amato, 2010).”

“The institution of marriage is undergoing vast changes: a rising average age of first marriage, increased rates of divorce, and a growing number of individuals who are actively choosing to not get married (Amato 2010, Santos and Weiss 2016).”

“Divorced individuals experience more depression, less life satisfaction, and more health problems than married individuals (see Amato, 2000, 2010, for a review.)”

“Key risk factors for divorce include low levels of education and income, early marriage, and unemployment (for reviews, see Amato 2010; Härkönen 2014; and Wagner and Weiß 2006).”

“In fact, “in comparison with children of intact first marriages, children of divorce suffer in virtually every measure of a child's well-being, whether educationally, economically, physically, psychologically, or emotionally” (Spaht 1998, p. 1554; see a recent review of the evidence by Amato 2010).”

“One is that disabled women are more likely to experience social and economic hardships, as documented in this and other studies, which are significant risk factors for relationship conflict and dissolution (Amato 2010; Clark and Crompton 2006; Kalmijn and Poortman 2006; Lyngstad and Jalovaara 2010).”

“For these children, divorce may instead give rise to stressful situations such as a decline in their standard of living, moving to a poorer neighborhood, changing schools, and losing contact with the non-custodial parent (Amato 2010).”

“…process is likely to entail multiple transitions such as sequential changes in family structure, which may in turn adversely affect the children (Amato, 2010).2 When questioned about their feelings about their parents’ separation, many children express sadness about spending diminished or no…”

“Given the disruptive and stressful nature of divorce (Amato, 2010, 2014; Bianchi et al., 1999; Milardo, 1987; Sandstr€om, 2011; Tamborini et al., 2015) this may not be surprising.”

“There is broad consensus that children living in nuclear families are less prone to illness and maladjustment than those with separated or divorced parents (e.g. Amato, 2010; Bergström et al., 2014; Breivik & Olweus, 2006; Carlsund et al., 2013; Wadsby et al., 2014).”

“Parents’ marital status and divorce in childhood can also hinder the development of interpersonal and relationship skills, cognitive growth, and educational achievement (Amato, 2010; Kim, 2011), which again may influence both partnership formation and mental health.”

“Many studies have shown that parental separation is negatively associated with children’s cognitive skills, educational outcomes, and emotional and psychological wellbeing; see the recent literature reviews by Amato (2010), Bernardi et al. (2013), and McLanahan et al. (2013).”

“, 2016) and relationship dissolution (Amato, 2010; Smock et al., 2005; Williams et al., 2015).”

“Serious alternatives monitoring and engagement in EDI (i.e., engaging in physical or emotional intimacy with individuals outside of the relationship) may serve multiple purposes.”

“…demonstrated that transitions in parents’ close relationships, especially parental divorce, are associated with a wide range of behavioral, psychological, and academic problems among children (see Amato, 2000, 2001, 2010; Raley & Sweeney, 2020; Reifman et al., 2001; Venta & Walker, 2021).”

“Similar to US studies (Amato 2010; McLanahan, Tach, and Schneider 2013; Page and Stevens 2004; Thomson, Hanson, and McLanahan 1994), we find changes in household per capita income associated with father transitions.”

“Decreased social interactions following parental divorce largely reflect declining opportunities for contact as the result of residential relocation and parents’ new partners, but also reduced emotional needs for contact because relationships are troubled (Amato, 2010).”

“Although it is difficult to establish exact numbers because of a variety of complicating reporting factors (Amato, 2010), it is estimated that at the end of the 20th century between 43% and 46% of marriages ended in dissolution in the United States (Schoen & Canudas-Romo, 2006).”

“Many factors associated with relationship satisfaction, distress, and instability (such as infidelity, domestic violence, etc.) are yet to be examined among cyclical couples and represent an area ripe for investigation (see Amato, 2010).”

“For example, nearly half of all marriages end in divorce (Amato, 2010), and four-in-ten new marriages are a remarriage for at least one partner (Livingston, 2014).”

“…in western contexts, cohabitation has become more prevalent (Lesthaeghe, 2010; Lundberg, Pollak, & Stearns, 2016), divorce rates have increased (Amato, 2010; Goode, 1993), childbearing outside of marriage has become common (Lesthaeghe, 2010; Lundberg et al., 2016), and acceptance and…”

“As Amato (2010) pointed out, divorce often puts people ‘‘on a downward trajectory from which they might never recover fully’’ (p. 1269).”

“Parallel to this rich theoretical discussion, extensive empirical research has yielded diverse and sometimes contradictory results (for a survey, see Amato 2010; Härkönen and Dronkers 2006; Kalmijn, De Graaf, and Poortman 2004; Kalmaijn, Loeve, and Manting 2007; Oppenheimer 1997; Sayer and Bianchi…”

“Results from the first study showed the expected result that participants from non-separated families scored somewhat higher in coherence of first memories than their counterparts because less stress was hypothesised overall in this group (Amato, 2010).”

“However, other cross-sectional studies found no gender differences in attachment to the former partner or psychological distress (Amato, 2010; Mastekaasa, 1994), whereas two studies found women were more psychologically distressed than men (Aseltine & Kessler, 1993; Simon & Marcussen, 1999).”

“Therefore, it is not the divorce itself, but the nature of the divorce process, the changes in relationships between parents and children and the post-divorce family transitions that need to be the focus of research (Amato, 2010).”

“The initiation and maintenance of intimate, romantic relationships have been linked with improved physical and emotional well-being, stronger perceptions of community attachment, and better developmental outcomes for the individuals (e.g., Amato 2010; Braithwaite et al. 2010; Proulx et al. 2007).”

“The effects of parental separation have generally been attributed to factors such as losses in income, family conflict and changes in parental styles (Amato 2010).”

“One concern with studies focused on these single destabilizing events is that they may underestimate the number of negative transitions that are triggered by (or co-occur with) with the destabilizing event of interest (Amato 2010).”

“These findings are in line with a large body of research showing that both severe and more common, milder forms of adversity, such as low socioeconomic status, increase risk of psychopathology (Amato, 2010; Dougherty et al., 2004).”