Implications of divorce

=Emotional implications=

Divorce is often one of the most traumatic periods in a person's life. Studies show it is the second-most stressful event in life, after the death of a spouse. Separation and Divorce is often associated with deep grief-based emotions over the loss of the desired-for relationship. Emotions may include sadness, lethargy, depression, anxiety, anger, and other emotions.

The emotional trauma can be exacerbated when the couples chooses an adversarial approach to the legal divorce, which itself adds additional stresses over and beyond the normal grieving. When in the anger-phase of grief, it can be tempting for a spouse to become adversarial, which can easily make things worse.

Mental health therapy can be extremely beneficial during a divorce, in order to address the many expectable emotions.

Non-adversarial methods of dispute resolution, such as mediation and collaborative divorce are less likely to add to the emotional trauma, and are better suited when an ongoing relationship is contemplated, such as for future parenting.

Financial implications

Divorce leads to the creation of two households rather than one, with consequent increased costs. All parties suffer these effects. As more women are awarded child custody, many of the roles and difficulties described below may be reversed, although men who are awarded custody have historically been less likely to be awarded child support or alimony.

Women often financially suffer as a result of divorce due to lower earning potential in many countries, and to their greater historical role in rearing children, and there may be some relationship between these two factors. They more often obtain exclusive custody of children after the divorce, reducing their ability to pursue high-paying employment. Child support collection can be quite difficult: some fathers feel that they only have an obligation towards their children and not their mother (who may have initiated an unwanted divorce), some may not want to meet their obligation towards their children, and others, while intending to meet their obligation may not be able to fulfill it. Many national and local governments provide some kind of welfare system for divorced mothers and their children. seealso|single parentPublic family support for male headed households, in the absence of a disability, are far less common. It is important to note that divorce is the number one contributor to bankruptcy in the United States.

Men are also often victims of divorce, both financially and in other ways. Court-ordered alimony and child support can be beggaring, often pegged to large percentages of the higher-earning spouse's income. Such obligations can make it impossible for paying spouses to remarry, and if they do remarry, the law often puts the payor's prior obligations before his and his new family's needs. Groups such as Families Need Fathers claim that non-custodial spouses (more often men) are often blocked from access to their children. A novel, "Blind Baseball", tells of a caring father whose family is ripped apart when his wife openly engages in adultery and leaves her husband to marry her paramour, knowing full well the courts are biased in her favor and the husband will be made to pay her alimony; her adultery is irrelevant in this case as they live in a State that practices no-fault divorce.

Currently in the United States, federal law makes non-payment of child support a felony, whereas refusal to honor court-ordered visitation decisions is not, and seldom results in any punishment or compulsion to change.

Most states in the US apply a standard of "equitable" division of property, attempting to address the many complexities involved in separating out years of financial sharing. In such states judges have greater power to balance various contributions to the marriage.

Another significant financial implication of divorce is the actual cost of the divorce itself. Attorneys fees are often an extreme hardship, particularly if the spouses choose an adversarial process rather than non-adversarial process, such as mediation or collaborative divorce. [

cite web
url = http://www.california-divorce-info.com/article-attorneysfees.html
title = Four Tips to Reduce Attorneys Fees in Your Divorce Case
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A prenuptial agreement before marriage may reduce conflict over financial division should a divorce be undertaken later, although they can also lead to litigation over the agreement itself.

Medical and psychological implications

Recent sociological studies have pointed to a variety of long-term economic, social, physical, and mental health consequences of divorce, although the full extent of such effects remains hotly debated. All the studies to date suffer from an inherent methodological weakness which researchers have not yet found a solution to: establishing the relevant baseline for comparisons. By definition, all divorces are of unhappy couples; meanwhile, those who do not divorce are some mix of happy couples and of unhappy ones who stayed married. Comparisons of life outcomes or well-being along the simple divorced/not divorced axis will therefore always show poorer outcomes for the group which is composed entirely of unhappy couples, demonstrating simply that being part of a happy couple is better than being part of an unhappy one.

Any list of formal sociological articles on aftereffects of divorce would quickly become obsolete, but among the more accessible books are works by Wallerstein cite book
last = Wallerstein
first = Judith S.
coauthors = Julia M. Lewis, and Sandra Blakeslee
title = The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce: The 25 Year Landmark Study
year = 2000
publisher = Hyperion
location =
id = ISBN 0-7868-6394-3 ] (reports long-term negative effects of divorce on children) and Mavis Hetherington cite book
last = Hetherington
first = E. Mavis
authorlink =
coauthors = John Kelly
title = For Better or For Worse: Divorce Reconsidered
year = 2002
publisher = W. W. Norton & Company
id = ISBN 0-393-04862-4 ] (reports that not all kids fare so badly, and that divorce can actually help children living in high-conflict homes such as those with domestic violence).

Recent longtitudinal studies have reported that most divorced people are no happier after divorce. University of Chicago sociologist Linda Waite analyzed the relationships between marriage, divorce and happiness using the National Survey of Family and Households. She reported that unhappily married adults who had divorced were no happier than those who had stayed married. [cite web
url = http://www.americanvalues.org/html/r-unhappy_ii.html
title = Does Divorce Make People Happy? Findings from a Study of Unhappy Marriages
accessdate = 2006-09-10
accessmonthday =
accessyear =
author =
last = Waite
first = Linda J.
authorlink =
coauthors = Don Browning, William J. Doherty, Maggie Gallagher, Ye Luo, and Scott M. Stanley
date=
year = 2003
month =
format =
work =
publisher =
pages =
language =
archiveurl =
archivedate = ] Some studies report that cohabitation before marriage is correlated with an increased divorce rate. [cite journal
last = Bramlett
first = Matthew D.
authorlink =
coauthors = William D. Mosher
date= 2001-05-31
year =
month =
title = First Marriage Dissolution, Divorce, and Remarriage: United State
journal = CDC National Center for Health Statistics "Advance Data"
volume = 323
issue =
pages =
doi =
id =
url = http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ad/ad323.pdf
format = PDF
accessdate =
quotes = ]

Attempts to assess the impact of divorce on children are inherently compromised by the same methodological problem as with adults: establishing the relevant baseline for comparisons. By definition, virtually all children of divorce are from unhappy families; meanwhile, children whose parents never divorced are from some mix of happy families and unhappy ones (parents who stayed married despite an unhappy marital relationship). Comparisons of life outcomes or well-being along the simple divorced/not divorced axis naturally always show poorer outcomes for the group that is composed entirely of children of unhappy families, demonstrating simply that being the child of happy parents is better than being the child of unhappy ones. The actual question of interest is whether being a child of unhappy parents who divorce is better or worse than being a child of unhappy parents who do not divorce. Establishing data for that comparison would require being able to identify with reasonable certainty the subset of nondivorced parents who are nonetheless deeply unhappy with each other, something no researcher has found a way to do at a meaningful scale.

From work that has been done along the flawed axis described above, it was until recently generally assumed that children's difficulties with divorce, while common, were short-lived. However, recent authors have argued that a major cost to children comes long after: when they attempt to form stable marriages themselves. There is extensive and heated debate over just how much harm, just how many children are harmed to what extent, what factors mediate the harm, and so on. Mavis Hetherington (a University of Virginia professor) reports that 70% of children coming from divorced families consider divorce an adequate answer to marital problems (even if children are present), compared to only 40% of children from non-divorced families.

Children of divorced parents (those entirely from unhappy families) are reported to have a higher chance of behavioral problems than those of non-divorced parents (a mix of happy and unhappy families). Studies have also reported the former to be more likely to suffer abuse than children in intact families, and to have a greater chance of living in poverty. [cite web
url = http://www.heritage.org/Research/Family/BG1373.cfm
title = The Effects of Divorce in America
accessdate =
accessmonthday =
accessyear =
author =
last = Fagan
first = Patrick F.
authorlink =
coauthors = Robert E. Rector
date= 2000-06-05
year =
month =
format =
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publisher = The Heritage Foundation
pages = Backgrounder #1373
language =
archiveurl =
archivedate = ] A 2002 article in "Clinical child and Family Psychology Review" discusses a variety of health consequences for children of the unhappy couples that do divorce. [cite journal
last = Troxel
first = WM
authorlink =
coauthors = KA Matthews
date= 2004-03
year =
month =
title = What are the costs of marital conflict and dissolution to children's physical health?
journal = Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev.
volume = 7
issue = 1
pages = 29–57
doi =
id =
url = http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15119687&query_hl=3&itool=pubmed_docsum
format =
accessdate = 2006-09-10
quotes = ] Constance Ahron, who has published books suggesting there may be positive effects for children, interviewed ninety-eight divorced families' children for "We're Still Family: What Grown Children Have to Say About Their Parents' Divorce". [cite book
last = Ahron
first = Constance
authorlink =
coauthors =
editor =
others =
title = We're Still Family: What Grown Children Have to Say About Their Parents' Divorce
origdate =
origyear =
origmonth =
url =
format =
accessdate =
accessyear =
accessmonth =
edition =
date=
year = 2004
month =
publisher = Harper Collins
location =
language =
id = ISBN 0-06-019305-0
doi =
pages =
chapter =
chapterurl =
quote = ] Since by definition all children of divorced parents had lived in unhappy homes, they unsurprisingly reported numerous unhappy experiences. Numerous subjects said things like "I saw some of the things my parents did and know not to do that in my marriage and see the way they treated each other and know not to do that to my spouse and my children. I know [the divorce] has made me more committed to my husband and my children." Ahron's method of asking adult children of divorce how they feel about it also has the well-known weaknesses of "self-report" studies.

Researchers have reported that in cases of "extremely" high conflict, divorce can be positive. An article in the Oklahoma Bar Journal defines "high conflict" in terms of ongoing litigation, anger and distress, verbal abuse, physical aggression or threats of physical aggression, difficulty in communicating about and cooperating in child care, or other court-determined factors. [cite journal
last = Bartlett
first = Barbara Ann
authorlink =
coauthors =
date= 2004-02-13
year =
month =
title = Parenting Coordination: A New Tool for Assisting High-Conflict Families
journal = Oklahoma Bar Journal
volume =
issue =
pages =
doi =
id =
url = http://www.okbar.org/obj/articles_04/021404.htm
format =
accessdate = 2006-09-10
quotes = ] studies have claimed that people who have been in divorced families have higher rates of alcoholism and other substance abuse compared to those who have never been divorced. Robert H. Coombs, Professor of Behavioral Sciences at UCLA, reviewed over 130 studies measuring how marital status affects personal well-being. [cite journal
last = Coombs
first = Robert H
authorlink =
coauthors =
year = 1991
month =
title = Marital Status and Personal Well-Being: A Literature Review
journal = Family Relations
volume = 40
issue =
pages =
doi =
id =
url =
format =
accessdate =
quotes = ]
* have higher rates of clinical depression. "Family disruption and low socioeconomic status in early childhood increase the long-term risk for major depression". [cite journal
last = Gilman
first = Stephen E.
authorlink =
coauthors = Ichiro Kawachi, Garrett M. Fitzmaurice, and Stephen L. Buka
year = 2003
month = May
title = Family Disruption in Childhood and Risk of Adult Depression
journal = American Journal of Psychiatry
volume = 160
issue =
pages = 939–946
doi =
id =
url = http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/160/5/939
format =
accessdate = 2006-09-10
quotes =
pmid = 12727699 ]
* seek formal psychiatric care at higher rates. Studies vary, suggesting from 5 to 21 times the risk, and vary over whether men or women are more seriously affected. [cite journal
last = Marks
first = Nadine F.
authorlink =
coauthors = James D. Lambert
year = 1998
month =
title = Marital Status Continuity and Change among Young and Midlife Adults: Longitudinal Effects on Psychological Well-being
journal = Journal of Family Issues
volume = 19
issue =
pages = 652–686
doi =
id =
url =
format =
accessdate =
quotes = ] [ cite book
last = Bloom
first = B. R.
authorlink =
coauthors = S. W. White, and S. J. Asher
editor =
others =
title = Divorce and Separation: Context, Causes and Consequences
origdate =
origyear =
origmonth =
url =
format =
accessdate =
accessyear =
accessmonth =
edition =
date=
year = 1979
month =
publisher = Basic Books
location = New York
language =
id =
doi =
pages =
chapter = Marital Disruption as a Stressful Life Event
chapterurl =
quote = ]
* in the case of men, are more likely to commit suicide at some point in their lives, according to a study by Augustine Kposowa, a University of California at Riverside sociologist. [cite journal
last = Kposawa
first = Augustine
authorlink =
coauthors =
year = 2003
month =
title = Divorce and suicide risk
journal = Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
volume = 57
issue =
pages = 993
doi =
id =
url = http://jech.bmjjournals.com/
format =
accessdate = 2006-09-10
quotes = ] This study quantified earlier work that estimated an increased risk of 2.7 times for men. [cite journal
last = Kposowa
first = Augustine
authorlink =
coauthors =
year = 2000
month =
title = Marital status and suicide in the National Longitudinal Mortality Study
journal = Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
volume = 54
issue =
pages = 254–261
doi =
id =
url = http://jech.bmjjournals.com/
format =
accessdate =
quotes = ] (cited in [cite web
url = http://archives.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/03/15/divorce.suicide.wmd/
title = Men more likely to commit suicide after divorce, study finds
accessdate = 2006-09-10
accessmonthday =
accessyear =
author =
last = Yang
first = Sara
authorlink =
coauthors =
date= 2000-03-15
year =
month =
format =
work =
publisher =
pages =
language =
archiveurl =
archivedate = ] )
* have lower life expectancies overall. [cite journal
last = Smock
first = Pamela J.
authorlink =
coauthors =
year = 1993
month =
title = The Economic Costs of Marital Disruption for Young Women over the Past Two Decades
journal = Demography
volume = 30
issue =
pages = 353–371
doi =
id =
url =
format =
accessdate =
quotes = ] cite book
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
editor =
others =
title = Population profile of the United States: 1991
origdate =
origyear =
origmonth =
url =
format =
accessdate =
accessyear =
accessmonth =
edition =
date=
year = 1995
month =
publisher = U.S. Bureau of the Census
location = Washington, DC: Government Printing Office
language =
id =
doi =
pages =
chapter = Current Population Reports, Special Studies, Series P-23, No. 173
chapterurl =
quote = ] [cite journal
last = Dickson
first = L.
authorlink =
coauthors =
year = 1993
month =
title = The future of marriage and family in black America
journal = Journal of Black Studies
volume = 23
issue =
pages = 472–491
doi =
id =
url =
format =
accessdate =
quotes = ] [ cite book
last = Arendell
first = T.
authorlink =
coauthors =
editor =
others =
title = Fathers and divorce
origdate =
origyear =
origmonth =
url =
format =
accessdate =
accessyear =
accessmonth =
edition =
date=
year = 1995
month =
publisher = Sage Publications
location = Thousand Oaks, Calif
language =
id =
doi =
pages =
chapter =
chapterurl =
quote = ] [cite journal
last = Amato
first = P. R.
authorlink =
coauthors = B. Keith.
year = 1991
month =
title = Parental divorce and adult wellbeing: A meta-analysis
journal = Journal of Marriage and Family
volume = 53
issue =
pages = 43–58
doi =
id =
url =
format =
accessdate =
quotes = ] [cite journal
last = Joung
first = I. M.
authorlink =
coauthors = "et al."
year = 1994
month =
title = Differences in Self-Reported Morbidity by Marital Status and by Living Arrangement
journal = International Journal of Epidemiology
volume = 23
issue =
pages = 91–97
doi =
id =
url =
format =
accessdate =
quotes = ]

Studies have also claimed positive correlations between divorce and rates of:
* stroke [cite journal
last = Engstrom
first = G.
authorlink =
coauthors = F. A. Khan, E. Zia, I. Jerntorp, H. Pessah-Rasmussen, B. Norrving, and L. Janzon
year = 2004
month =
title = Marital dissolution is followed by an increased incidence of stroke
journal = Cerebrovascular Disease
volume = 18
issue = 4
pages = 318–24
doi =
id =
url = http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15359099&dopt=Citation
format =
accessdate = 2006-09-10
quotes = ]
* cancer. Married cancer patients are also more likely to recover than divorced ones. [cite journal
last = Goodwin
first = James S.
authorlink =
coauthors = William C. Hunt, Charles R. Key and Jonathan M. Sarmet
year = 1987
month =
title = The Effect of Marital Status on Stage, Treatment, and Survival of Cancer Patients
journal = Journal of the American Medical Association
volume = 258
issue =
pages = 3125–3130
doi =
id =
url =
format =
accessdate =
quotes = ]
* acute infectious diseases, parasitic diseases, respiratory illnesses, digestive illnesses, and severe injuries. See the article "Black Men And Divorce: Implications For Culturally Competent Practice". [ cite book
last = Lawson
first = Erma Jean
authorlink =
coauthors = Tanya L. Sharpe
editor =
others =
title = Black Men And Divorce: Implications For Culturally Competent Practice
origdate =
origyear =
origmonth =
url = http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HKU/is_5_1/ai_66918338
format =
accessdate =
accessyear =
accessmonth =
edition =
date= July 1
year = 2000
month =
publisher = Minority Health Today
location =
language =
id =
doi =
pages =
chapter =
chapterurl =
quote = ] In support of these particular claims, that article cites the U.S. Bureau of the Census Population profile of the United States in 1991and an article by S. L. Albrecht on "Reactions and adjustments to divorce". [ cite book
last = Albrecht
first = S. L.
authorlink =
coauthors =
editor =
others =
title = Reactions and adjustments to divorce: differences in the experiences of males and females
origdate =
origyear =
origmonth =
url =
format =
accessdate =
accessyear =
accessmonth =
edition = 29
date=
year = 1980
month =
publisher = Family Relations
location =
language =
id =
doi =
pages = 59-70
chapter =
chapterurl =
quote = ]
* heart problems. Some research suggests that childhood trauma, including parental divorce, can lead to much greater risk of heart attack in later life. [cite journal
last = O'Rand
first = Angela M.
authorlink =
coauthors = Jenifer Hamil-Luker
year = 2005
month =
title = Processes of Cumulative Adversity: Childhood Disadvantage and Increased Risk of Heart Attack Across the Life Course
journal = Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences
volume = 60
issue =
pages = S117–S124
doi =
id =
url = http://psychsoc.gerontologyjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/60/suppl_Special_Issue_2/S117
format =
accessdate = 2006-09-10
quotes =
pmid = 16251582 ] Combined with job stress, divorce led to a 69% increase of death rate among men with above average risk of heart disease. [cite web
url = http://heart.healthcentersonline.com/newsstories/stressfuljobbadmarriageups.cfm
title = Stressful job, bad marriage ups man's death risk
accessdate = 2006-09-10
accessmonthday =
accessyear =
author =
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
date= 2002-02-12
year =
month =
format =
work =
publisher = Heart Center Online
pages =
language =
archiveurl =
archivedate = ] Cites as source [cite journal
last = Matthews
first = KA
authorlink =
coauthors = BB Gump
year = 2002
month =
title = Chronic work stress and marital dissolution increase risk of posttrial mortality in men
journal = Archives of Internal Medicine
volume = 162
issue =
pages = 309–315
doi =
id =
url = http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=11822923&itool=iconabstr&query_hl=1&itool=pubmed_docsum
format =
accessdate = 2006-09-10
quotes = ]
* rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. A 2002 article in the Journal of Rheumatology shows a 30% increase in risk at any given age. [cite journal
last = Mili
first = F.
authorlink =
coauthors = C. G. Helmick, M. M. Zack
year = 2002
month =
title = Prevalence of Arthritis: Analysis of Data from the US Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 1996-99
journal = Journal of Rheumatology
volume = 29
issue =
pages = 1981–1989
doi =
id =
url = http://jrheum.com/archives/sept02.html
format =
accessdate =
quotes = ] A 2003 article in the Canadian Journal of Public Health finds that parental divorce leads to increased risk of arthritis for children later in life. [cite journal
last = Kopec
first = J. A.
authorlink =
coauthors = E. C. Sayre
year = 2003
month =
title = Traumatic experiences in childhood and the risk of arthritis: A prospective cohort study
journal = Canadian Journal of Public Health
volume = 95
issue = 5
pages = 361–65
doi =
id =
url =
format =
accessdate =
quotes = ]
* sexually transmitted diseases. For example, in Uganda "Results from a baseline survey of HIV-1 infection in the cohort of over 4,000 adults (over 12 years old) showed a twofold increase in risk of infection in divorced or separated persons when compared with those who are married." [cite journal
last = Nabaitu
first = J.
authorlink =
coauthors = C. Bachengana and J. Seeley
year = 1994
month =
title = Marital instability in a rural population in south-west Uganda: implications for the spread of HIV-1 infection
journal = Africa
volume = 64
issue = 2
pages = 243–51
doi =
id =
url = http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=12320088&query_hl=3
format =
accessdate = 2006-09-10
quotes = ]

References

ee also

* Divorce

References

* Amato, Paul R. and Alan Booth. "A Generation at Risk: Growing Up in an Era of Family Upheaval." Harvard University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-674-29283-9 and ISBN 0-674-00398-5. Reviews and information at [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/AMAGER.html]
* Gallagher, Maggie. "The Abolition of Marriage." Regnery Publishing, 1996. ISBN 0-89526-464-1.
* Lester, David. "Time-Series Versus Regional Correlates of Rates of Personal Violence." "Death Studies" 1993: 529-534.
* McLanahan, Sara and Gary Sandefur. "Growing Up with a Single Parent; What Hurts, What Helps". Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994: 82.
* Morowitz, Harold J. "Hiding in the Hammond Report." "Hospital Practice" August 1975; 39.
* Office for National Statistics (UK). Mortality Statistics: Childhood, Infant and Perinatal, Review of the Registrar General on Deaths in England and Wales, 2000, Series DH3 33, 2002.
* U.S. Bureau of the Census. Marriage and Divorce. General US survey information. [http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/marr-div.html]
* U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Survey of Divorce [http://www.fatherhood.hhs.gov/charting02/Family.htm#FF2] (link obsolete).