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Understanding the Divorce Cycle
Growing up in a divorced family leads to a variety of difficulties for
adult offspring in their own partnerships. One of the best known and
mostpowerfulisthedivorcecycle,thetransmissionofdivorcefromone
generation to the next. This book draws on two national social survey
data sets to examine how the divorce cycle has transformed family life
in contemporary America. Compared to people from intact families,
the children of divorce are more likely to marry as teenagers but less
likely to wed overall. They are more likely to marry other people from
divorced families, more likely to dissolve second and third marriages,
and less likely to marry their live-in partners. Yet some of the adverse
consequencesofparentaldivorcehaveabatedevenasdivorceitselfhas
proliferated and become more socially accepted. Taken together, these
findingsshowhowparentaldivorceisastrongforceinpeople’slivesand
societyasawhole.
Nicholas Wolfinger is an assistant professor at the University of Utah.
Heistheco-editorofthebookFragileFamiliesandtheMarriageAgenda.
He has published widely in journals such as Demography,SocialForces,
andJournalofFamilyIssues.HeistherecipientoftheUniversityofUtah’s
SuperiorResearchAward,2004.
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UNDERSTANDING THE
DIVORCE CYCLE
The Children of Divorce in Their
Own Marriages
Nicholas H. Wolfinger
UniversityofUtah
iii
cambridge university press
Cambridge,NewYork,Melbourne,Madrid,CapeTown,Singapore,SãoPaulo
Cambridge University Press
TheEdinburghBuilding,Cambridgecb22ru,UK
PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyCambridgeUniversityPress,NewYork
www.cambridge.org
Informationo nthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9780521851169
© Cambridge University Press 2005
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexceptionandtotheprovisionof
relevantcollectivelicensingagreements,noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplace
withoutthewrittenpermissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublishedinprintformat 2005
isbn-13 978-0-511-12909-4 eBook(EBL)
isbn-10 0-511-12909-2
eBook(EBL)
isbn-13 978-0-521-85116-9 hardback
isbn-10 0-521-85116-5 hardback
isbn-13 978-0-521-61660-7 paperback
isbn-10 0-521-61660-3 paperback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyofurls
forexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication,anddoesnot
guaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain,accurateorappropriate.
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Contents
Preface pageix
Acknowledgments xi
1 Introduction 1
MarriageandDivorce:CoexistingAmericanInstitutions 2
DivorceandPublicPolicy 5
OutlineofBook 6
Data 8
TowardaBalancedPortraitoftheDivorceCycle 9
2 WhyDivorceBegetsDivorce 11
FatherAbsence 12
InstitutionalizedInequality:Racism,Poverty,and
FamilyStructure 14
TowardaBetterExplanation 17
PredivorceDifferences 17
ContextandCommunity 19
SocioeconomicExplanations 21
GeneticDifferences 25
ParentalConflict 26
RoleModelingRedux 27
ParentalDivorceandOffspringMaritalProblems 30
FromFamilyofOrigintoMaritalDissolution 33
3 CouplingandUncoupling 35
TheDemographyofMarriage 36
WhyParentalDivorceAffectsOffspring
MarriageTiming 38
HowParentalDivorceAffectsOffspring
MarriageTiming 40
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WhytheChildrenofDivorceHaveHighRatesof
TeenageMarriage 42
ExplainingLowOverallMarriageRatesfortheChildren
ofDivorce 44
ParentalDivorceandPartnerSelection:Family
StructureHomogamy 45
HowParentalDivorceAffectsPartnerSelection 47
Conclusion 51
4 HowStrongIstheDivorceCycle? 53
HowStrongIstheDivorceCycle? 55
DifferencesbyFamilyType 56
ParentalDivorce,SocialBackground,andRespondent
Characteristics 60
HowSocialBackgroundandRespondentCharacteristics
AffecttheDivorceCycle 63
CanUnwedMotherhoodExplaintheDivorceCycle? 67
RedHerrings 69
MultipleMarriagesandMultipleDivorces 71
Conclusion 73
5 HistoricalDevelopments 76
HowDivorceChangedintheTwentiethCentury 77
ExplainingTrendsinMarriageTimingfortheChildren
ofDivorce 81
HowHastheMaritalBehaviorofPeoplefromDivorced
FamiliesChangedoverTime? 82
WhyMarriageRatesHaveDeclined 83
ExplainingTrendsintheIntergenerationalTransmission
ofDivorce 85
HowMuchHastheDivorceCycleAbated? 87
Conclusion 91
6 TheCohabitationRevolution 93
HowMarriageandCohabitationDiffer 94
HowParentalDivorceAffectsCohabitingRelationships 97
Conclusion 102
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7 Conclusion 105
ParentalDivorceandOffspringMaritalBehavior:A
LifeSpanChronology 107
MarriageTiming 107
MateSelection 108
WhatMakestheDivorceCycleStronger?OrWeaker? 109
HistoricalTrends 112
ParentalDivorceandOffspringCohabiting
Relationships 115
Limitations 116
TheDivorceReformMovementinAmerica 116
TheArgumentforNo-FaultLaws 120
MixedBlessings 124
AppendixA:DataandMethods 127
Data 127
SurveyWeightsandClustering 128
MeasuringFamilyofOrigin 129
SocioeconomicVariables 132
TemporalVariables 133
MiscellaneousVariables 135
MissingData 135
Analysis 135
Chapter3 135
Chapter4 137
Chapter5 139
Chapter6 141
AppendixB:EvaluatingtheRoleofMarriageDifferentials
intheWeakeningDivorceCycle 142
Notes 145
Bibliography 159
Index 177
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