Divorce Statistics and Studies Blog

New article on divorce's effects on adults

Divorce leads to increased depression and drinking for both men and women, although it varies depending on whether there are children, according to The Association of Family and Conciliation Courts summary and critique of the following article, which also measured several other outcomes:

Williams, K. and Dunne-Bryant, A. [2006]. Divorce and Adult Psychological Well-Being: Clarifying the Role of Gender and Child Age. Journal of Marriage and Family, 68, 1178-1196.

Additional info on effects and correlates of divorce

To get complete information and citations, you should also review the Divorce Statistics Collection’s page on your topic:
Correlations with Other Factors: Age | Alcoholic parents | Children of Divorce Getting Divorced
| Cohabitation | Current Events| Gender of Children | Laws |   Marriage education programs | Occupation | Poverty | Race | Region | Religion |  Smoking | Unrealistic Expectations 
Effects on Society: Domestic Violence | Social-Economic-Taxpayer Costs | Effects on Black Community
Effects on Divorced People: Domestic Violence | Economic | Happiness | Physical and Mental Health
Effects on Children: Generally | Child Abuse | Poverty | Crime | Crime | Physical Health | Mental Health/Behavioral | Social Skills/Adjustment | Suicide | Teen & single parenthood | Exposure to family conflict | Stepfamilies | African American Children
Other:  Summary of Our Findings So Far| Causes of individual divorces

Study -- Divorce bad for long-term happiness

From --

"Don't get divorced or fired"
The Philadelphia Inquirer
March 15, 2007
When it comes to your long-term happiness, it's worse to have loved and lost
than never to have loved at all, at least according to a review article by
Michigan State University psychologist Richard Lucas.

Lucas set out to investigate a commonly held view in his field - that people
are born to be happy or sad, the slings and arrows of fortune altering that
"set point" only temporarily.
"But nobody had specifically looked at the impact of big life changes, such
as marriage, divorce or unemployment, he said. ...
"But divorce, he found, could plunge you permanently into the emotional
dumps. So could losing your job.
"His findings, based on several different studies, were published in the
April issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science.
"On the plus side, he said, divorced people could climb back to the relative
happiness they enjoyed as singles by getting remarried.

--- From  'Study: Don't Get Divorced / The 'Gray' Divorce - 3/15/ 07" -- a Listserv message from http://www.smartmarriages.com/