This article answers some of the main and most frequently asked questions regarding divorce, including: what percentage of marriages taking place today will end in divorce? Are divorce rates going up or down? Is Canada’s divorce rate higher than other countries? In providing answers to these and other questions, this article also explains the various statistics that are used to measure divorce, and discusses their limitations. The paper is divided into three sections: One presents the basic numbers, while the other two focus on the causes and consequences of divorce. Issues on remarriage and cohabitation that pertain to divorce are also reviewed.
"...In the U.S., 15% of all children will see their custodial parent divorce more than once before age 18; and nearly 50% of children in divorced families see their parent divorce again. The research indicates that such multiple familial transitions correlate with declining well-being in children and an increase in behavioral problems (Fomby and Cherlin, 2007).
"...nowadays only a small proportion of divorces are the result of a very conflictual marriage: children are therefore less likely than in the past to be negatively affected by their parents’ marital conflict before separation and divorce occur. However, children whose parents break up a highly dysfunctional marriage often experience a decrease in behavioral problems (Strohschein, 2005)."
"...Divorce is necessary in any society. This said, divorce and remarriage are adult institutions. That is, they were intended to separate couples who could no longer live together and to allow ex-spouses to repartner. However, these institutions are not always in the best interest of children. And, as seen earlier, divorce is not necessarily a positive experience for adults either.
"...Studies also indicate that a sizeable proportion of marriages that end in divorce were actually quite “salvageable,” even happy, and that many of these ex-spouses are no better off after (Ambert, 1989). It seems that there may be two types of divorce: those resulting from a truly unhappy marriage and those resulting from a weak commitment to marriage (Amato and Hohmann-Marriott, 2007; Ambert, 1989). After 30 years of studying divorce, I have come to conclude that, although divorce is necessary, some divorces are avoidable and unnecessary; the same remark certainly applies to serious cohabitational unions that dissolve. In light of this, couples who marry or who live together should be encouraged to face the inevitability of ups and downs in relationships—and I am not referring here to severe conflict, which afflicts far fewer couples than in the past. Connidis (2003) remarks that relationships are changed after divorce and have to be re-negotiated over the years. The effects are felt across several generations within a family.
"It is often said that the family has become an outdated institution: High rates of divorce, cohabitation, and births to solo mothers are often used to justify this statement. Is this true? No. As is documented elsewhere (Ambert, 2005a), families fulfill more functions now than was the case 50 years ago. What is also true is that conjugal dissolution (marriage + cohabitation) complicates and burdens family life but does not destroy it. As a result, the capacity of many such families to provide for the care and socialization of children as well as for help across generations is diminished..."
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