Sociology 1201 Marital separation and divorce Is marriage: 1. a voluntary contract that can be ended by either partner; 2. a lifetime commitment “til death do us part?” (How did the women in Promises I Can Keep see it?) Gallup poll: “Do you believe that an unhappy marriage should be maintained for the sake of the children?”

Sociology 1201 Divorce rates U.S. 15 per Sweden71113 Canada61011 France368 Japan455 Italy112

Sociology 1201 Why the rapid increase?  Legal changes: “no fault marriage”  Changing expectations: “best friend”  Cultural emphasis: self-fulfilment  Women’s employment trends  Men’s employment trends

Sociology 1201 Should the laws be changed to make divorce more difficult? The General Social Survey The General Social Survey

Sociology 1201 How serious are the issues that usually precipitate a divorce?  Notice how this question was finessed in the movie.  Whitehead: “Some people say as few as 10-15% of divorces involve marriages that are really irretrievably broken.”  Narrator: “So even by the most generous measure, many of these divorces are not justified.”

Sociology 1201 Judith Wallerstein et. Al.  Began in 1971, with 60 families, including 131 children, aged 2-18  At 5-year mark, half the men and 1/3 of the women reported being more unhappy than when they were married  At 10-year mark, 30% of children reported bad relationship with both parents

Sociology 1201 Major surprises  “Sleeper effect:” kids (especially girls) who seemed to be doing well at first but had a very hard time later  “Unexpected legacy:” major impacts for children of divorce in forming romantic/sexual relationships as adults

Sociology 1201 Major criticisms  Cherlin and Furstenberg, Divided Families –Lack of representative sampling –Lack of control group of children not experiencing divorce Basis for their book: National Survey of Children, in which a representative sample of parents and children were interviewed at 5-year intervals8

Sociology 1201 “Fading fathers”  Five years after divorce, nearly half of kids do not have contact with fathers even once a year.  Why? –Child support issues (social class) –Parenting skills of fathers –Very part-time parenting

Sociology 1201 Economic Issues  Female-headed families six times more likely to be poor.  Child support system: improving but still not generous… e.g. British system more sensitve to children’s needs and less sensitive to noncustodial parent’s needs

Sociology 1201 Child well-being  NSC data: “In the last four years has your child had any behavior or discipline problems at school resulting in your receiving a note or being asked to come to school?” 34% (children of divorce) vs 20% Children of divorce doing no worse than children in intact, high conflict homes

Sociology 1201 Public policy recommendations  Help custodial parent function better: improve child support and collections  Reduce conflict between parents: implement “primary caretaker standard” for custody  What about joint custody?