Research on Divorce: Continuing Trends and New Developments

“According to the literature, the same period (1990–1999) also marked the beginning of a new era of the astronomical rise in the divorce rate (Amato, 2010; Aguirre, 2019; Lin et al., 2019) and continued to accelerate in the millennium.”

“Booth and Edwards 1985, South and Spitze 1986, Teachman 2002, Goldin and Katz 2002, Lehrer 2008, and for reviews of recent studies, see also Amato 2010, Glenn et al. 2010, and Lehrer and Son 2017). The negative association is found to be consistent across cohorts and over time (Teachman, 2002), although it may be non-…”

“…the effects that divorces have on children’s lives from a variety of perspectives (Amato & Cheadle, 2005; Eldar-Avidan, Haj-Yahia, & Greenbaum, 2009; Fabricius, 2003; Moon, 2011) but often the starting point is that divorce is harmful for the children (Amato, 2010; Coleman, Ganong, & Fine, 2000).”

“Interpersonal predictors include domestic violence, infidelity, frequent conflict, poor commitment to marriage, and poor love and trust between spouses (Amato, 2010).”

“Most studies focus on average differences between children with married and divorced parents, thereby overlooking potential variability within the latter group (Amato, 2010).”

“Men and women who are willing to become a stepparent, divorce, or cohabit may differ in substantial ways from other individuals (Amato, 2010).”

“Recent estimates have suggested nearly 50% of marriages will end in divorce or permanent separation (Amato, 2010).”

“In his subsequent decade review, Amato (2010) located only 1,980 additional articles.”

“In the postdivorce time period, families experience unique stressors including managing finances, parental conflict, and coping with the loss of the family unit (Amato, 2010).”

“Since the early 1980s the divorce rate has held fairly steady, with approximately 50% of all first marriages ending in divorce (Amato, 2010).”

“The many observational studies investigating couple interactions have added important insight into couple behaviors related to marital satisfaction and marital stability (Amato, 2010; Gottman, 1998; Heyman, 2001).”

“Ample research has shown that parents’ divorce and remarriage can interfere with children’s health and development (Amato 2010; Fomby and Cherlin 2007), but little work has explored whether union instability can also alter the nature of other intergenerational processes of stratification (Kalmijn…”

“Moreover, many of the negative consequences of divorce can be attributed to the probabilistic nature of quantitative studies and the selection effects of single parents who experienced the event of divorce or separation (Amato, 2010; McLanahan et al., 1981).”

“In families with children, infidelity can create an emotionally stressful climate that results in behavioral problems and academic struggles (Amato, 2010).”

“…quarrelling a long time before breaking up, the length and intensity of exposure to these quarrels, the age at which the child witnessed the events, and the role of significant others in their lives, such as siblings, relatives or peers, as well as the wider sociocultural context (Amato, 2010).”

“Specifically, previous studies have indicated that adolescents in single-parent households are at a heightened risk for adjustment problems (Barrett and Turner, 2005; Amato, 2010; Daryanani et al., 2016).”

“Physical limitations can increase the likelihood of union dissolution by causing stress and reducing the quality of the marital relationship (Amato, 2010; Daniel et al., 2009; Yorgason et al., 2008).”

“The DSR views divorce “...not as a discrete event, but as a process that unfolds over months and even years” (Amato, 2010, p. 10).”

“…accumulating body of research has documented negative associations of certain family forms and children’s developmental outcomes (for a review see e.g. Amato 2000, 2010; Sigle-Rushton and McLanahan 2004; Garriga and Härkönen 2009; Amato and James 2010; McLanahan et al. 2013; Härkönen et al. 2017).”

“According to divorce- stress- adjustment theory, the severity of the psychological reaction to divorce and the length of the adaptation period have been suggested to depend on individual dispositions and intraand interpersonal resources (Amato, 2010; Perrig- Chiello et al., 2015), such as good coping and social skills…”

“Mothers receive help from a dating partner, who can provide extra income and help with watching children (Amato, 2010; Ganong & Coleman, 2004).”

“Schools in South Africa generally do not offer any structured group intervention programmes in an attempt to assist and guide children of divorced parents through what could be a difficult experience for them (Amato 2010).”

“There is strong evidence that healthy romantic relationships are associated with better emotional and physical health, better outcomes for children, and stronger social ties and community connections (Amato, 2010; Braithwaite, Delevi, & Fincham, 2010; Proulx, Helms, & Buehler, 2007; Waite, 1995).”

“Researchers have also examined trends in (re)marital dissolution in the context of relationship satisfaction, perceived relationship stability, and variables that influence these outcomes uniquely for first married and remarried individuals (Amato, 2010; Falke & Larson, 2007; Larson & Holman, 1994; Mirecki, Chou, Elli…”

“Understandably, divorced coparents experience many discrepancies such as in their approach to finances, interpersonal relationships, and parenting, manifesting in postdivorce conflict and low child wellbeing (Amato, 2010).”

“…covariates were included, because they are associated with well-being: gender, race/ethnicity, physical custody status, repartnering status, difficulty paying bills, and satisfaction with the divorce decree (Amato 2000, 2010; Bauserman 2012; Petren et al. 2017; Williams and DunneBryant 2006).”

“The concept of adaptive families refers to the family transitions that occur in the mother’s or the father’s household, and is also known as the multitransitions perspective (Amato 2010).”

“1.1 Divorce and fathering Resarch has shown that divorce is associated with psychosocial risks for children (see Amato, 2010 for review).”

“Studies that address the effects of divorce on child welfare emphasise the adverse effect of marital dissolution on children’s well-being (Amato, 2010).”

“The crude divorce rate is less than ideal, as it is affected by the age structure of the population, however, Amato (2010), finds that the correlation between a crude divorce rate and a refined divorce rate, the number of divorces per 1,000 married women, is over .90.”

“Economic and psychological hardships would threaten children’s adjustment, their future development and life chances (Amato 2000, 2010; Amato and Cheadle 2005; Härkönen et al. 2017).”

“First, the experience of union dissolution itself represents a major stressor or (at least a temporary) crisis that has direct and lasting effects on maternal well-being (Amato, 2010; Thoits, 2010).”

“Parental Conflict Parental conflict has been a consistent predictor of children’s outcomes in the divorce literature (Amato, 2010).”

“Related to outcomes for women across the 5-year period, and aligned with research among continually married heterosexual couples (Amato, 2010), relationship endurance appeared marginally significantly related to better mental health.”

“Interestingly, the fact that marriage is generally preceded by cohabitation may have implications for marital quality and divorce (Amato, 2010).”

“The exhusband and ex-wife can feel happy after a divorce, but the children may not necessarily feel better in that way (Amato, 2010; Fagan & Churcill, 2012; Lamb, 2004).”

“There is little argument that children in the aftermath of divorce are at higher risk for developing both externalizing and internalizing disorders, lower motivations to learn, and lower school performance (Amato, 2010; Hetherington & Elmore, 2003).”

“These same characteristics are, in turn, linked to marital instability (Amato, 2010).”

“Based on prior research on parents’ and children’s post-divorce adjustment (Amato, 2010), we included several parent-, child-, and divorce-related control variables.”

“With life expectancy increasing in recent years (Xu et al., 2018), the rate of divorce among aging adults is also increasing (Amato, 2010).”

“This is incredibly rare as interracial couples are significantly less likely to be married or stay married than parents of monoracial children (Amato, 2010; Brown et al., 2018).”

“When marriages are weak and dissolve, this can have negative social, emotional, and economic consequences for all involved (Amato, 2010).”

“The accuracy of these measures may be affected by variables such as the proportion of married adults in the population or the age structure of the population (Amato, 2010).”

“Conflating structure with instability and its cooccurring changes to family processes leads to misleading and thus incorrect conclusions (e.g., Amato, 2010; Thomson & McLanahan, 2012).”

“© 2017 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC and more mental health problems than married individuals (Amato, 2010; for review; Faye et al., 2013; Hughes & Waite, 2009; Sbarra, 2006; Wang & Amato, 2000).”

“There is a long history of research regarding the consequences of divorce for children: Amato (2001); Amato (2010); Amato and Anthony (2014); Amato and Cheadle (2005); Dempsey (2013); Fomby and Bosick (2013); and Strohschein (2010), to name a few.”

“…predictors such as a young age at marriage, low educational resources, unemployment, parental divorce experiences, higherorder or interethnic relationships, as well as relationship characteristics such as frequent conflict or low levels of trust (Amato 2010, pp. 651–652; Wu and Penning 2018).”

“These differences in relationship satisfaction matter for many reasons, most directly because they are tied to adult and child well-being (Amato, 2010; Karney & Bradbury, 2020).”

“Divorce in the United States has historically been much higher than in other Western countries, and the best estimates suggesting that about half of all first marriages will end in divorce in the United States (Amato 2010).”

“The consensus is that, although smaller in magnitude, the negative effects of parental divorce/separation and absence of the father on children’s outcomes remain even after controlling for unobserved family characteristics (Amato, 2010; Amato & Anthony, 2014).”

“Although divorce rates in the United States are challenging to estimate, scholars have suggested between 40% and 50% of first marriages end in divorce (Amato, 2010; Schoen & Standish, 2001; Weiner, Harlow, Adams, & Grebstein, 1995).”

“…closeness with non-custodial parents, type of custody (e.g., shared or sole custody), parents’ distress and adjustment following divorce, the amount of interparental conflict, or diminished financial resources might better explain the effects than divorce per se (Amato 2010; Kelly and Emery 2003).”

“They thus follow a pattern of early and often unstable demographic transitions that are associated with higher risks of family dissolution (Amato, 2010; Gähler et al., 2009; Kuperberg, 2014; Lyngstad & Jalovaara, 2010).”

“Measuring family dissolution based on cohabitation rather than formal marriage alone is an important contribution, as this allows us to includea significantgroup of families,which previous studies have tended to ignore ( Amato 2010).”

“Beyond dating, studies based in divorce literature also suggest that leaving an unhealthy relationship can be promotive of better mental health (Amato, 2010).”

“This concern had already been raised by Becker et al. (1977) in their seminal work on the economics of marital instability and has featured in the work of Johnson and Skinner (1986), Poortman (2005), and Amato (2010) among others.”

“Marriage has been drastically transformed in the early 21 century (Amato, 2010; Seltzer, 2004).”

“The rich literature on divorce since the 1950s reveals the major trends occurring worldwide (Amato, 2010; Cherlin, 2017; Clark & Brauner ‐ Otto, 2015; Glendon, 1989; Goode, 1993; Härkönen, 2014), such as the rising number of divorces and the widespread institutionalisation of divorce.”

“…is some evidence that speci fi c family characteristics are related to separation (e.g., low income and immigration background; Alola, et al., 2020; Amato, 2010; Van Huis & Steenhof, 2003) and the amount of missing data on immigration status is considerable, the results regarding the risk of…”

“Studies (Amato, 2000, 2010; Cohen & Finzi-Dottan, 2012; Duffy, Thomas, & Trayner, 2002; Shapiro, 1996) indicated that even years after the divorce, a significant minority continue to report high levels of psychological distress, including depression, unhappiness, helplessness, aggression, sadness,…”

“Success rates vary widely in the literature, partly due to differences in success criteria, selective recruitment, and other factors that compromise comparison (Amato, 2010).”

“In particular, children with divorced parents were found to have lower scores on a variety of emotional, behavioural, social and academic outcomes compared with children with continuously married parents (Amato, 2010).”