Relationship between Positive Attitude and Marital Separation: The US Evidence

Abstract

Objective: The study tests the hypothesis that positive attitude of an individual influences his/her decision for marital separation negatively. It extends this analysis to investigate whether these two variables may affect each other simultaneously. Finally, it examines whether the marital separation decision of men differs from that of women. Methods: Using two samples from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 (NLSY79), a longitudinal data set from the United States, the study estimates marital separation equation by probit in both cross-sectional and longitudinal frameworks. To test for the presence of a simultaneous relationship between positive attitude and marital separation, the study further estimates these two equations by an appropriate two-stage probit procedure. In addition, the study estimates these equations for males and females separately and draws interesting conclusions. Results: Results obtained by single-equation methods under both cross-sectional and longitudinal frameworks indicate that positive attitude is a significant covariate of an individual’s marital separation decision regardless of whether he/she is a younger adult or a mature adult. Following Maddala’s two-stage probit procedure, the study further demonstrates that an individual’s marital status and positive attitude are simultaneously related among mature adult women only. The evidence of a recursive relationship between these two variables in both younger and mature adult samples indicate to a large extent that positive attitude may in fact have a causal effect on marital separation. The study further finds the evidence that covariates of marital separation and positive attitude differ significantly between men and women. Conclusion: Evidence of a strong negative correlation between positive attitude and marital separation demonstrated in this study indicates that any policy to improve the attitude of an individual may have a favorable effect on marital relationship.