1 / 5

Divorce

Measuring divorce. Divorce rate (4 per 1000 in the population; 20 per 1000 marriages)Proportion of marriages ending in divorceEstimate(roughly 1 in two; some argue 4 in 10, rate stabilized since 1980). A brief legal history of divorce. Era of restricted divorce (through mid 1800s)Divorce for

alesia
Download Presentation

Divorce

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

    1. Divorce Measuring divorce Theories to explain the overall level of divorce Legal change Economics Morality and Individualism Micro-level predictors of divorce

    2. Measuring divorce Divorce rate (4 per 1000 in the population; 20+ per 1000 marriages) Proportion of marriages ending in divorce Estimate (roughly 1 in two; some argue 4 in 10, rate stabilized since 1980)

    3. A brief legal history of divorce Era of restricted divorce (through mid 1800s) Divorce for adultery or desertion, extreme violence Few wives granted divorces; Men used divorce to protect property rights Even in the absence of divorce – marital dissolution through death at early ages and separation (particularly among poorer classes) Divorce Tolerance (mid 1800s – 1970s) Divorce granted for above reasons as well as habitual drunkenness, failure to provide, or mental cruelty More accessible to women Steady rise in divorce rate from 1860 through 1960s (with few exceptional periods) Era of Unrestricted Divorce (post 1970) No-fault divorce laws Initial rise (backlog of cases?), no difference in divorce rates between no-fault and fault states

    4. An economic explanation of divorce Marriage as a cost-benefit relationship (income, love,domestic labor, sex) When tradeoffs are perceived as unequal (triggered by changes in equity) divorce may be increasingly likely Evidence: Much of the evidence used to examine this hypothesis is at the macro-level (e.g. families stay together when they can’t afford divorce (1930s)) Rise of women’s labor force participation changes the marital bargain Inconsistent with individual-level predictors of divorce

    5. Divorce and the rise of individualism Marriage is about personal, emotional commitment With the decline of community and rise of individualism emphasis on marriage declined Evidence: Americans continue to report that they believe in marriage, yet 2/3 think unhappy married couples should divorce Peoples attitudes about divorce have became more negative in the 1980s, yet divorce rate has been stable for the past 30 years Much contradictory evidence about the rise of individualism in the post-WWII era

    6. Individual Risks of Divorce On average, divorce happens 6 years after marriage Highest risk in earliest years – 5% in first year; 9% in second year; 9% in third year Low income and poverty associated with greater risk More educated less likely to divorce Early marriage associated with higher risk African Americans more likely than whites to divorce Influence of religion declining

More Related