Suchergebnisse

Using a national panel of married individuals interviewed in 1980 and 1988, this study explores the apparent anomaly that marital happiness and divorce are both lower in longer marriages. We find that marital happiness has a stronger effect on divorce at longer durations than at shorter durations. Exploration of the interactions between barriers and alternatives to marriage dissolution and marital happiness suggests that this interaction arises because longer marriages are more often characterized by high barriers and few alternatives, a situation that strengthens the relationship between divorce and happiness.

An extensive literature demonstrates a negative correlation between the presence of children and marital quality. Few of these studies are designed to test the reasons for this relationship. Using a national panel study, we examine two possible paths: that people who choose to have children differ from those who do not in ways that affect marital quality, and that having a child changes marital structure and process. The results of the analysis support neither hypothesis. Although marital quality deteriorated over the three-year period, the transition to parenthood does not seem to affect changes in marital happiness, interaction, disagreements, division of labor, satisfaction with division of labor, or number of marital problems. Having a child did, however, seem to deter divorce and permanent separation.

This study examines the causal processes that lead to the widely observed negative association between presence of children and marital happiness. Using a nationwide panel of 1535 married individuals, we find support for two primary causal mechanisms. First, the presence of children is associated with differences in marital structure (lower interaction, more dissatisfaction with finances and the division of labor, and more traditionalism of the division of labor) that are, in turn, associated with lower marital happiness. We also find, however, that the relationship between marital happiness and children is partially spurious. The presence of preschoolers and especially the birth of a first child serve to reduce the likelihood that unhappily married people will divorce within a three-year period. As a result, a larger proportion of unhappily married people is retained temporarily in the parent population and thus contributes to the observed negative relation between presence of children and marital happiness.

Using data from a sample of 2135 midwestern college students, this article examines the consequences of marital disruption on child-parent attachment. Among the factors considered in the analysis are death versus divorce, amount of conflict in intact and divorced homes, sex of custodial parent, custodial parent's remarriage, and relationships with stepparents. The results show that disruption does not reduce a child's attachment to the custodial parent. Divorce does reduce a child's attachment to the noncustodial parent, however, and thus reduces the child's total affectional network. This pattern is particularly problematic in father-custody homes.

This study uses a national sample of married persons under age 55, interviewed in 1980 and again in 1983, to estimate why divorce and marital instability vary by age and duration of marriage. Results indicate that the accumulation of assets substantially reduces the propensity to divorce. We also find that several important correlates of divorce and instability (age at marriage, health, social integration, and income) interact with age and duration. In general, these factors seem to operate almost exclusively among young people and young marriages.

The dimensionality of five conceptually distinct components of marital quality was evaluated in a representative national sample of 1845 married people. Confirmatory factor analysis found two dimensions, one consisting of scales of marital happiness and interaction; the other, of marital disagreements, problems, and instability. Further examination of the two dimensions showed that they operate in distinctly different ways over forms of marital structure including wife's employment, marital duration, sex, and presence of children. It was concluded that scales of marital quality that combine measures from these two dimensions are likely to yield ambiguous findings and contribute little to an understanding of marital process.

Using longitudinal interview data, we examine the predictive ability of a scale designed to predict divorce and permanent separation. We find that high scorers are nine times more likely to divorce than low scorers. Divorce rates for components of the scale indicate that dissolution is a process, becoming more likely as overt actions succeed attitudinal factors. Finally, discriminant analysis is used to test a model predicting the likelihood of individuals moving from instability to divorce. The results indicate that individuals are more apt to move on to divorce or permanent separation if alternative attractions are present, there are few barriers to divorce, or when the marriage retains fewer attractions. The results indicate that the marital instability index in conjunction with information on barriers and attractions provides the basis for a comprehensive model predicting divorce.