Fact Sheet on Divorce in
America
Glenn T. Stanton
The following data is taken from Stanton's book,
Why Marriage Matters: Reasons to Believe in Marriage in
Post-Modern Society, September 1997, Pinon Press with
permission.
"[T]he fastest growing marital status category was divorced
persons. The number [of] currently divorced adults quadrupled from
4.3 million in 1970 to 17.4 million in 1994."
-Arlene Saluter, Marital Status and Living Arrangements: March
1994 , U.S.. Bureau of the Census, March 1996; series P20-484,
p, vi..
In 1970, 3% of all people over 18 years of age were divorced. In
1994, that number had climbed to 9%.
Ibid. ,table A-1
The Journal of Marriage and the Family reports that
"no-fault divorce law had a significant positive effect on the
divorce rate across the 50 states." ensuring America's place as
the unrivaled leader in the worldwide divorce race.
. Paul A. Nakonezny, Robert D. Schull and Joseph Lee Rodgers, "The
Effect of No-Fault Divorce Law on the Divorce Rate Across the 50
States and Its Relation to Income, Education and Religiosity,"
Journal of Marriage and the Family , 1995, 57:477-488; Ailsa
Burns and Cath Scott, Mother Headed Families and Why They Have
Increased , (Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Publishers, 1994), p. 5,9.
Divorce and Alcoholism
Marital Status % of Lifetime Prevalence
Intact Marriage 8.9
Never Married or Cohabited 15.0
One Divorce or Separation 16.2
More than one Div. or Sep. 24.2
Cohabited only 29.2
Lee Robins and Darrel Regier, Psychiatric Disorders in
America: The Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study (New York: Free
Press, 1991), p. 103.
Divorce and Suicide
The relative risk of suicide for each marital status falls as
follows:
Marital Status Relative Risk
Married 1.0
Never Married 1.9
Widowed 2.8
Divorced 2.9
Jack C. Smith, James A. Mercy and Judith M. Conn, "Marital
Status and the Risk of Suicide," American Journal of Public
Health , 1988, 78:78-80.
Divorce and Depression
The National Institute of Mental Health found that women in
cohabiting relationships had much greater rates of depression than
women in married relationships (second only to those twice
divorced). The numbers fall as follows (annual rate of incident of
depression per 100):
Married (never divorced) 1.5
Never married 2.4
Divorced once 4.1
Divorced twice 5.8
Cohabiting 5.1
Lee Robins and Darrel Regier, Psychiatric Disorders in
America: The Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study (New York: Free
Press, 1991), p. 64.
Divorce and. General Mental Illness
Robins and Regier found that the prevalence of suffering from
any psychiatric disorder over a lifetime was significantly
lower for those in a legal marriage.
Marital Status Lifetime Prevalence
Married, never div/sep 24
Single, never cohabit 33
Divorced/Separated 44
Unmarried Cohabiting 52
Robins and Regier, 1991, p. 334.
Divorce and Loneliness
One random sample of over 8,600 adults revealed the specific
percentages of those who felt less lonely:
Marital Status % Lonely
Married 4.6
Never Married 14.5
Divorced 20.4
Widowed 20.6
Separated 29.6
This finding is even more striking given the author's definition
of loneliness being the "absence of satisfying social
relationships" as opposed to merely the close presence of other
people.
Randy M. Page and Galen E. Cole, "Demographic Predictors of
Self-Reported Loneliness in Adults," Psychological Reports ,
1991, 68:939-945.
Divorce and Child Well Being
A. High-School Drop-out:
According to each of the four surveys analyzed by Drs. Sara
McLanahan and Gary Sandefur, with each data set adjusting for race,
sex, parental education, number of siblings and place of residence,
the percentages of risk for high school drop out according
to family type are as follows:
Source Two-Parents Single Parent
National Longitudinal
Survey of Youth
(NLSY) 13% 29%
Panel Study of
Income Dynamics
(PSID) 15% 25%
High School and Beyond
(HSB) 9% 16%
National Survey of
Families and Households
(NSFH) 9% 17%
Sara McLanahan and Gary Sandefur, Growing Up With a Single
Parent: What Hurts, What Helps , (Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1994), p. 41.
B. Idleness (a precursor to crime)
The percentages for males and females at risk of being out of
school and out of work fall as follows and all the differences were
statistically significant:
Study Population Two-Parent Families Single Parent
Males
NLSY 12% 17%
PSID 19% 29%
HSB 9% 12%
Females
NLSY 16% 28%
PSID 26% 41%
HSB 18% 24%
McLanahan and Sandefur, 1994, p. 50.
C. Pre-Marital Births
The risks for teen births for unmarried women are as
follows:
Study Population Two-Parents One-Parent
NLSY 11% 27%
PSID 14% 31%
HSB* 14% 19%
NSFH 20% 30%
* [Adolescent girls who became pregnant in school are less
likely to finish high school. This accounts for the smaller
disparity between the two family forms in a school-based survey
like The High School and Beyond Study (HSB).]
McLanahan and Sandefur, 1994, p. 53.
D. General Health Measures
Dr. Dawson found among the different family types:
* ...health vulnerability scores from 20% to 35% higher
than those for children living with both biological parents.
* ...predicted risk of injury was about 20% to 30%
greater for children from disrupted marriages than for other
children.
* Children living with formerly married mothers had a 50%
greater risk of having asthma in the preceding 12 months.
* ...an increased risk of speech defects among children
living with never-married mothers.
* ...the observed proportion reported to have received
professional help for emotional or behavior problems in the
preceding year varied from 2.7% for children living with both
biological parents to 8.8% for children living with formerly
married mothers. For children living with never-married mothers or
with mothers and stepfathers, the respective proportions were 4.4%
and 6.6%.
Deborah A. Dawson, "Family Structure and Children's Health and
Well-Being: Data from the 1988 National Heath Interview Survey on
Child Health," Journal of Marriage and the Family,1991,
53:573-584.
E. Divorce and Adolescent Mental Health
Relying on data from the 1988 National Health Interview Survey
on Child Health, Deborah Dawson found that the percentage of
children receiving professional help for emotional or behavioral
problems in the year preceding the health interview were as
followed:
Children living with % receiving help
Both biological parents 2.7%
Formerly married mothers 8.8%
Never married mothers 4.4%
Mothers and Stepfathers 6.6%
Dawson, 1991, p. 578.
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