Divorce Statistics and Studies Blog

Couples' divorce decision-making studied by divorce lawyer/mediator turned family studies Ph.D.

Helping Couples in the Divorce Decision-Making “Wilderness”

April 16, 2012 by  Alan J. Hawkins

 

Married moms least depressed, single moms most depressed

"Parenthood is Hard, But Married Parents Are the Least Likely to be Depressed" -- Gruntled Center, 12/12/11, citing Marquardt and Wilcox' State of Our Unions 2011.

"Divorce reform could save billions in government aid" - includes many stats on costs & effects of divorce

"Divorce reform could save billions in government aid" - includes many stats on costs & effects of divorce

By Cheryl Wetzstein

-

The Washington Times

, Monday, August 15, 2011.

Break-ups leave women poorer but men more fragile - Love & Relationships - SunHerald.com

Break-ups leave women poorer but men more fragile - Love & Relationships - SunHerald.com. Cites an Australian study by David de Vaus, professor of sociology at the University of Queensland, presented at the Australian Institute of Family Studies conference.

"Men's income in real terms is almost 20 percent higher four years after separation, in line with general income trends, but on average women's income is 2 percent less. And separated men are more likely than women to call themselves "poor" and to complain of financial hardship"

Survey of happiness with past decisions to divorce, to stay married, & more

David Lapp on the Family Scholars Blog reports on a  baseline statewide survey on marriage and divorce conducted just as Oklahoma was launching its statewide marriage initiative. Findings he discusses include that 1/5 of divorced women and 1/3 of divorced men wish they had worked harder to save the marriage; but 3/4 of both sexes wish their exes had. Happiness at deciding to stay married during a bad phase in the marriage was 80% in the first 7 years afterwards, and 96% after that (for those who were still married then). The survey looks at correlations with age at the time of marriage, religon, and probably many other things.

With surveys of divorcees' self-reporting, remember: "Every opportunity to reflect on our choices is an opportunity to reconstruct a past view of ourselves as flawless decision-makers"

Would You Like This Article More If You Had To "Like" It On Facebook Before Reading? | Fast Company.

New Gov't Overview of Best Recent Marriage/Divorce Research

Romantic Relationships: Trends, Attitudes and Social Implications - National Healthy Marriage Resource Center.

Kelly M. Roberts writes: The Healthy Marriage research collection: Trends, Attitudes and Social Implications is now up. Dan Hubler and I put a great deal of time into that project; much thanks go to coordinator Courtney Harrison, and reviewers Bill Coffin and Theo Ooms. Great reasource - quick access to many of the seminal articles building the foundation for healthy marriage.

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/