Research on Divorce: Continuing Trends and New Developments

“Thus, although divorce has been shown to have several types of negative impacts, including unavailability of social support and less financial stability (Amato, 2010; Amato, 2014; Gray, De Vaus, Qu, & Stanton, 2011), these were not the dimensions focused on by this group of participants.”

“Like other socially marginalized family formations (Lauster and Easterbrook 2011; Amato 2010; Biblarz and Stacey 2010), the relationships of gays and lesbians have provoked political battles and incited scholarly attention that now spans several decades.”

“The crisis of divorce often leads people to look for a therapist and, in some cases, the psychological work done by the person in the aftermath of a divorce leads to successful reorganization of their functioning (Amato, 2010; Hetherington, Bridges, & Insabella, 1998; Hetherington & Kelly, 2003).”

“Studies have also displayed that the well-being of children separated or divorced parents is usually threatened by stresses that affect both parents and children 76 .”

“One underlying rationale for mediation is that if both parties are content with the agreement which they have reached, they are more predisposed to work together following divorce (Amato 2010).”

“With reference to family dynamics, families without fathers are associated with differences in child abuse and behavioural problems (bullying, risk behaviour, uncontrollable behaviour) (Amato, 2010: np).”

“Researchers across the world have investigated the roles that being raised in foster care [52], being a child of divorced parents [53], being adopted [54], and growing up in diverse living environments play in the educational attainment of children and young adults, often finding that children without supportive and c…”

“Note that separation from living in a partnership is treated as divorce per standards in the literature [2,14].”

“These negative outcomes also continue into adulthood [46].”

“Previous works have reported mixed findings about possible gender differences in the effect of parental relational instability (Amato, 2010), yet we were unable to investigate this issue further.”

“In this regard, divorce is no longer a personal problem, but rather it is a multi-stage process that not only affects the way people interact in a family, but also causes severe harm to the community (3).”

“…parent-youngster connections, accessibility of social help, organization of the home, and family time use in ways that are worthwhile to youngsters (Amato, 2010; Foster & Kalil, 2007) The family structure of children at any age is just a point on a family structure way (Wu & Martinson, 1993).”

“Many researchers have found that there are intrinsic differences between separated and intact families (Block, Block, & Gjerde, 1986; Painter & Levine, 2000) and that the response of pupils to separation and divorce will depend on their circumstances, age, the level of conflict in the family (Amato, 2010) and financia…”

“…are often less involved in parenting; second, the time constraints and economic pressures resident parents face may affect their ability to supervise and participate in their children’s lives, and the quality of their parenting style (Amato 2001, 2010; McLanahan and Sandefur 1994; Seltzer 2000).”

“…but growing literature demonstrating that parental relationship instability is connected to problematic childhood sleep (Rudd et al., 2019; Troxel et al., 2014) and a robust literature connecting parental relationship instability to poorer child outcomes (Osborne & McLanahan, 2007; Amato, 2010).”

“Previous studies have shown that children whose parents are divorced are disadvantaged with regard to their educational success (Francesconi et al., 2010), their psychological health (Amato, 2010), and their relationships with their parents (Amato, 2005).”

“The effects of a divorce on children have been studied from a variety of perspectives (Amato & Cheadle, 2005; Eldar-Avidan, Haj-Yahia, & Greenbaum, 2009; Fabricius, 2003; Moon, 2011) and divorce is usually considered harmful for the children (Amato, 2010; Coleman, Ganong, & Fine, 2000).”

“, 43%–46%).(23) Lower rates may have resulted in decreased power to detect significant differences between groups, particularly shared environmental effects that are difficult to detect with smaller samples.”

“…affects the lives of children may be summarised into three spheres of expected consequences on the basis of theoretically orientated literature [Amato 2000, 2010]: (1) the effects of the absence of one parent and the concomitant need for a specifi c behaviour (adaptation) on the part of the…”

“…several studies broaching the subjects of dissatisfaction, violence, abuse, and a variety of other difficulties in couples relationships, including high rates of divorce (Amato, 2010; Clarke-Stewart & Brentano, 2006; Markman et al., 2010), demonstrate how such a life value remains hard to reach.”

“Amato (2010) provided a summary of most of these studies.”

“McLanahan & Sandefur (1994) have shown that even when controlling for the socio-economic status of parents, children of divorced parents tend to do less well in school and on the labour market (Amato, 2010; Lersch & Baxter, 2015; McLanahan et al., 2013).”

“Marital breakdown and divorce are associated with increased risk of psychological distress and negative health outcomes, including depression (Amato, 2010; Kalmijn, 2010; Sbarra, Law, & Portley, 2011).”

“For example, 32% of men report verbal abuse by their partners (Carney & Barner, 2012), 14% of married women are raped at least once by their husbands (Bergen & Barnhill, 2006), and divorce can negatively affect parents’ well-being (e.g., loss of custody of children; Amato, 2010) and their child's development (e.”

“In contrast to the impact of divorce (Amato, 2010), the effects of dissolution in non-marital unions are considered more fleeting or temporary (e.g., Sprecher et al., 1998).”

“In other words, the threshold for separation τ(k) is defined by the equalization of Q functions for the actions “continue” (equation (3)) and “separate” (equation (4)).”

“The negative impact has been attributed to loss of available financial resources (partly due to the loss of economies of scale), family conflict and residential relocation (Amato, 2010).”

“Nearly half of marriages and common-law relationship end in separation (Amato, 2010; Wright, Lussier, & Sabourin, 2008), while 20 to 31% of couples report experiencing clinically significant relationship distress (Whisman, Beach, & Snyder, 2008).”

“Both less stress and more stability may improve child outcomes (Amato 2010; Kalil et al. 2011; Lamb et al. 1997).2 Distance to the non-resident parent may also have no association with child outcomes.”

“To the causality behind these associations is stress created in low-income families, which affects the lives of children and children’s personality development (Amato, 2010).”

“Urbanisation is another factor that have been shown to be associated with higher risks of divorce (Amato 2010).”

“…issue that has received considerable attention from researchers, with empirical studies repeatedly showing that the dissolution of a family can have negative repercussions for the well-being of its members (Amato, 2000, 2010; Amato & Keith, 1991; Lorenz et al., 2006; Williams & Dunne-Bryant, 2006).”

“Now an accepted global marital routine, divorce affects about 40 to 45% of first marriages, depending on jurisdictions (Amato, 2010).”

“…skills (e.g., involvement with antisocial peers, negativity and conflicts), poorer learning motivations, lower school performance and engagement (Amato, 2010; Hetherington & Elmore, 2003; Hipke, Wolchik, Sandler, & Braver, 2002), there is less consensus on the magnitude of the differences,…”

“Divorce or parental separation is an increasingly common experience for both adults and children and is one of the greatest and most difficult family transitions (Amato, 2010).”

“We included this control variable for two reasons: (1) because parents with fewer financial resources are more likely to separate (Amato 2010) and (2) because children living in families with fewer economic resources generally have increased health risks compared to children living in families with…”

“In defining divorce, scholars typically either adopt a legalistic definition (i.e., a divorce requires a “judgement of divorce” issued by the courts; Amato, 2010) or take a broader perspective that highlights both legal divorce and related phenomena (e.g., separation; Kposowa, 1998; Thornton, 1985).”

“Amato (2010) menciona que uno de los retos de la investigación actual sobre el divorcio consiste en analizar sus efectos y consecuencias en grupos de distintas etnias, naciones o culturas, a fin de poder reflejar el grado de variabilidad existente en el proceso de ajuste.”

“In addition, children exposed to violence at home (witnessing violence against the mother and/or being the victims of parental violence themselves) are more likely to suffer from depression and affective disorders (Amato 2010, 2001; Izaguirre and Calvete 2018).”

“Nevertheless, as a range of research conducted globally has explored (see, for example, Amato, 2010; Amato & Kane, 2011; Jeynes, 1998a; Poortman, 2000; Smock, 1994; Sweeney, 2010), marital dissolution, due to divorce, widowhood, or separation can negatively impact the well-being of parents and…”

“The entrance or exit of a parent or a parent’s partner can cause stress that undermines effective parenting practices (Amato 2010; Osborne and McLanahan 2007); in turn, harsh disciplining practices increase the risk of secondary exposure to violence (Ahlin and Antunes 2015), likely because youth…”

“Some researchers have suggested that a person’s ability of post-divorced adjustment depends on their perception of the divorce process (Amato, 2010).”

“On average, children with divorced parents have greater levels of externalizing and internalizing behaviors, lower academic achievement, and more problematic social relationships than children without divorced parents (Amato, 2010; Lansford, 2009).”

“This urged a call for evidence-based interventions focused on parents and aimed at decreasing inter-parental conflicts in a high-conflict divorce context to protect children from further harm (Amato, 2010; Grych, 2005; Harold et al., 2016).”

“Further, single-parent families may need more time to take care of their children (Amato, 2010; Parker et al., 2022), leading to a decrease in their participation in the labor market, hence a decrease in the competitiveness of the labor market (Bonnet et al., 2020; Weitzman, 1980).”

“Divorce has an effect that goes beyond personal relationships, and it affects families, kids, and the society at large (Amato, 2010; Cherlin, 2010).”

“From what we already know, it appears to be important for later child outcomes whether family disruption is caused by bereavement, divorce, or parental separation, whether the parents remarry, and whether it is the mother or the father who is absent (Amato 2010; Kiernan 1992; Kendler et al. 2002; Rostila and Saarela 2…”

“While it has been suggested that parents should be grouped according to education level (Amato, 2010), results of the current study propose that parents also be grouped according to race and ethnicity.”