Research on Divorce: Continuing Trends and New Developments

“A number of studies have shown that separated and divorced couples experience greater risk for mental and physical health problems (Amato, 2010; Wang et al., 2015), as well as can have strong negative consequences for their children, such as impacting their children’s mental health, academic and…”

“…in particular in terms of high levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms, and in the diagnosis of anxiety and depression (Afifi, Cox, & Enns, 2006; Amato, 2010; APA, 2013; Blanco, Otero, López, Torres, & Vázquez, 2017; Bourassa, Allen, Mehl, & Sbarra, 2017; Seijo, Fariña, Corras, Novo, & Arce,…”

“Children show higher rates of medical problems and psychological, social and educational adjustment difficulties (Amato, 2000, 2001, 2007, 2010; Amato & Dorius, 2010; Amato & Gilbreth, 1999; Kelly, 2000; Leon, 2003; Reifman, Villa, Amans, Rethinam, & Telesca, 2001; Rogers, 2004; Wallerstein, 1991).”

“Because these trajectories lead to dramatically higher probabilities of divorce those on high marital quality pathways, along with divorce’s concomitant disadvantages (Amato, 2010), the links between sociodemographic characteristics, marital quality trajectories, and subsequent marital outcomes such as divorce provide…”

“Indeed, some scholars have shown an increase in antisocial behavior such as alcohol abuse immediately following divorce (Amato, 2010).”

“There is much research on the relationship between father absence because of divorce or parental separation and child problem behaviour, including externalizing and internalizing problems (Amato 2010; McLanahan et al. 2013).”

“Much of this instability may be attributed to the various challenges facing couples in stepfamilies (see Amato, 2010; Coleman et al., 2000 for a further discussion).”

“Most of these studies argued that children who grow up in a household with two married biological parents do better overall than those growing up with a single mother (e.g. Amato 2001) and that parental separation is negatively associated with a variety of child outcomes (e.g. Amato 2010).”

“…discord in the population mean that these benefits prove elusive for many families (e.g., Whisman, Beach, & Snyder, 2008), with rates of relationship distress and dissolution particularly high among low-income and ethnic minority families (e.g., Amato, 2010; Bramlett & Mosher, 2002; Cherlin, 2005).”

“The dissolution of unions (marriage or cohabitation) has become increasingly frequent in advanced societies, resulting in negative effects for parents and children (Amato, 2010).”

“Generally, divorcees report poorer physical and mental health and more symptoms of stress, anxiety, depression, and social isolation than the general population (Amato, 2000, 2010; Kessing et al., 2003; Hewitt and Turrell, 2011; Hewitt et al., 2012; Hald et al., 2020b).”

“Importantly, in this connection, some research has found that leaving very distressed marriages can have the opposite effect and improve mental health (e.g., Amato, 2000, 2014; Amato, 2010).”

“Stepfamilies, while possessing many strengths, also have a number of unique challenges that may help account for their higher dissolution and dysfunction rates compared with intact biological families (Amato, 2010; Sweeney, 2010).”

“Divorce, in turn, is a common demographic transition that may affect health (Amato 2010).”

“However, over the past few decades, marital dissolution has become increasingly common; social norms surrounding marriage and divorce have also changed drastically (Amato, 2010; Tach & Eads, 2015).”

“…non- experimental comparison studies demonstrating that adults who experience relationship instability (i.e., divorce) tend to have greater distress, less accumulated wealth across the life- course, and children who report poorer outcomes, compared to continuously married couples (Amato, 2010).”

“The content is consistent with the latest empirical evidence about successful coparenting and helping children adjust to separation and divorce (Amato, 2000, 2010; Amato & Keith, 1991).”

“Parental divorce and parental conflict influence offspring well-being across various domains, including risk of divorce in their own marriages (see Amato 2010, for a review).”

“The second study aim sought to address recent calls for additional within family structure analyses (Amato, 2010; Ganong et al., 2015).”

“The rise in wives’ labor force participation makes divorce a realistic option for many women (Amato, 2010; Uhlenberg & Myers, 1981).”

“In this regard, marital issues, such as marital conflict and marital dissolution, affect child development while enhancing the possibility of adjustment issues (Amato, 2010; Kouros, Merrilees, & Cummings, 2008).”

“marital happiness, sexual satisfaction, andpreviousdivorce, other confoundingfactorscouldincludewhetherparticipantshaddivorced parents or other familymembers who divorced (Amato, 2010) and personalitycharacteristicswhicharerelatedtobothpornographyuse (Egan&Parmar,2013)anddivorce(Roberts,Kuncel,Shiner,Caspi, & Goldberg…”

“A well-established strain of research, mostly based on samples from developed countries, in the social and behavioral sciences holds that care given by an intact family will, on average, produce the most optimal outcomes for children (Amato, 2010; McLanahan & Sanderfur, 1994; McLanahan, Tach, & Schneider, 2013).”

“Family mediation is another conflict resolution method, though it is most often utilized at the divorce stage and is, in fact, now mandatory in the majority of states in the US (Amato 2010).”

“Although research suggests that the predictors and consequences of divorce vary across nations, reflecting historical, economic or cultural factors, much of the research on divorce has been done in the United States (Amato 2010).”

“Lastly, although our focus was on conflicts, many other aspects of a divorce may be stressful for children, such as moving houses, court involvement, reduced income of the parents, or the sudden loss of their secure family as a basis (Amato, 2010).”

“Also, some studies on data from recent decades have produced contradictory results (Greenstein, 1990; South, 1995; Amato, 2010, p.651).”

“Nonetheless, we suggest that both communication and relationship adjustment are important as they both are associated with relationship dissolution (Amato, 2010; Gottman, 1998).”

“It is well known that divorced men and women have elevated rates of relationship dissolution (e.g., Amato, 2010; Bramlett & Mosher, 2001).”

“1007/ s10680-012-9273-2 Amato, P. R. (2010). Research on divorce: continuing trends and new developments. J. Marriage Fam. 72, 650–666. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2010. 00723.x Anderson, K. G. (2011). “Stepparenting, divorce, and investment in children,” in The Oxford Handbook on Evolutionary Family Psychology, eds C.Sal…”

“De acuerdo con todo ello, Boone-Holladay (2016) afirma que las consecuencias del divorcio, especialmente para los niños, son graves y en algunos casos permanecen hasta la vida adulta (Amato, 2010; Arce y Fariña, 2007; Hetherington y Kelly, 2005; Novo, Seijo y Souto, 2010).”

“Marital separation and divorce are stressful life events that, although generally considered acute [6], engender a host of challenges that can become chronic.”

“The divorce-stress-adjustment theoretical framework emphasizes that divorce is not a discrete event, but rather a process of significant duration (Amato, 2000; Amato, 2010).”

“While marriage impacts the SWB of both men and women, studies indicate that the deterioration of a marriage bond is particularly detrimental for the SWB of men [34,35].”

“Against this background, a large number of empirical studies have shown that, on average, children in nuclear families fare better than children in post-separation families with respect to their health and overall well-being (for overviews, see Amato 2010; Härkönen et al. 2017).”

“…2002), income (Rogers, 2004), living with divorced parents (Wolfinger, 2000), premarital cohabitation (Axinn and Thornton, 1992; Y Zhang, 2017), the increase of women’s education and status (Amato, 2010), and migration (Li, 2018), and some personality traits also can predict marriage dissolution.”

“Previous research on youth with SHCNs has found that children with increased medical complexity, who belong to minority racial or ethnic groups, who experience multiple family transitions; and who are economically vulnerable, are at substantially increased risk of having unmet health care needs and challenges with sch…”

“Previous research showed that parental divorce and parental conflict affect the quality and strength of family relationships (Amato, 2000, 2010, 2014; Poortman & Voorpostel, 2009; Riggio, 2001), which makes them important control variables.”

“The divorce phenomenon has undergone massive change over the past century, from a 5% divorce rate in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century to 50% by the beginning of the 21st century (Amato, 2000, 2010).”

“Although the experiences and consequences of parental divorce on adolescents are well documented (Amato, 2001, 2010; Amato & Keith, 1991), less is known about how adult children experience parental divorce (Greenwood, 2012).”

“As emotional distress and negative changes in parent-child relationships are major negative consequences of parental divorce (Amato, 2010; Hetherington, 2003; Pruett & Barker, 2010), the focal aim of this study is to examine the effect of KIDS on children’s emotional problems and parent-child…”

“As Amato underlined in his article (2010) on divorce, it is often important to distinguish marital separation from divorce research to understand whether the ambiguity of separation is associated with the same or different predictors than divorce (Kreager et al.”

“The findings in support of this argument would thus provide an important clue for understanding heterogeneous family dissolution effects more generally (Amato 2010).”

“Our findings also indicate on the correlation according to which measures of mental health among divorced females and males are in general comparable, which is consistent with previous research (Amato 2010).”

“While studies have often found small gender differences in how parental separation affects child development (Amato, 2010), paternal absence was found to induce boys to higher aggressiveness or anti-school attitudes, with boys showing greater difficulties than girls in adjusting to divorce in the…”

“Divorce rates have been declining since the 1980s, yet some scholars still estimate that as many as 40% to 50% of marriages fail (Amato, 2010; Cherlin, 2010).”

“…as Methods Qualitative Sociology Review • www.qualitativesociologyreview.org 55©2015 QSR Volume XI Issue 154 changes in family life include an increasing divorce and reconstitution rate, and an increasing number of children living outside their birth families (see also: Amato 2000; 2010).”

“Regarding the implications of nonstandard FAs for children’s educational outcomes, the effects of parental divorce have been the object of particular attention (Amato 2000, 2010; for Italy: Albertini and Dronkers 2009).”

“Research consistently demonstrates increased risk of negative outcomes for children who experience parental divorce, relative to children in intact families, across emotional, behavioral, social, psychological, health, and academic domains (Amato, 2010; Lansford, 2009).”

“Divorce and separation are undesirable life events, which have negative consequences for individuals’ economic, emotional, and physical well-being, as well as their housing situation (Amato 2000, 2010; Poortman 2000).”

“…is enacted, how conflict is resolved, and whether buffers to ameliorate impacts of conflict are present in children’s lives are the most important predictors for child adjustment (see, e.g. Amato, 2001; 2010; Elam et al., 2019; Emery, 1999; Fincham et al., 1994; Grych, 2005; O’Hara et al., 2020).”

“For a recent review, see Amato (2010).”

“This body of research also indicates that problems in the parents’ marriage involving jealousy, anger, overly critical behavior, poor spousal communication, and a tendency for one spouse to dominate the other all appear to have negative effects on offspring’s future marriages ( Amato 1996, 2010; Amato and Booth 1991,…”

“Men and women may struggle with reversed roles because of their personal beliefs about gender roles or because they fear the societal consequences of violating norms about how men and women should behave (West and Zimmerman, 1987), particularly within marriage (Amato et al., 2007). Sayer et al. (2011) argue that gende…”