Abstract
How does religion influence the ways divorcées frame their divorce experience? Building on Mills’s “vocabularies of motive” concept, I theorize that Americans who are more religious or affiliated with a conservative Protestant tradition will be more likely to emphasize their former spouse’s role in the divorce while minimizing their own. Data are taken from a large, representative sample of divorced Americans in the 2014 Relationships in America survey. Analyses affirm that divorced Americans who attend worship services more frequently are more likely to say that their former spouse wanted the divorce more than they did. Looking at 17 specific reasons for divorce, those who feel religion is more important to them are consistently more likely to select reasons that put blame on their former spouse or circumstances, while frequent attendees are less likely to cite their own behaviors or intentions. Though less consistent, notable patterns also emerged for conservative Protestants. Given the stigma against divorce in many religious communities, I argue that divorcées in such communities likely feel internal pressure to account for their divorce in ways that deflect blame.
Highlights
A vast literature has explored the relationship between religion and marital stability, with studies consistently showing that divorce is less common among Americans who are more religious (Amato and Rogers 1997; Brown et al 2008; Bulanda and Brown 2007; Call and Heaton 1997; Chi and Houseknecht 1985; Glenn and Supancic 1984; Lehrer and Chiswick 1993; Massoglia et al 2011) and hold theologically conservative beliefs (Call and Heaton 1997; Vaaler et al 2009; but see Glass and Levchak 2014)
While those who are affiliated with conservative Protestantism or believe their religion is more important to them are no different from other Americans in this regard, those who attend religious services more frequently are significantly more likely to report that their former spouse was the one who initiated the divorce, not them
Building on Mills’s (1940) “vocabularies of motive” concept, I reasoned that actors tend to give “accounts” that situate their past behaviors or experiences in ways that will be socially appropriate for their reference groups
Summary
1985; Glenn and Supancic 1984; Lehrer and Chiswick 1993; Massoglia et al 2011) and hold theologically conservative beliefs (Call and Heaton 1997; Vaaler et al 2009; but see Glass and Levchak 2014) This is often attributed to the stronger collective sanctions that conservative Christian communities have against divorce as well as their general sanctification of the marriage relationship (see reviews in Amato 2010; Lehrer and Son 2017; Mahoney 2010; Mahoney et al 2001; Weaver et al 2002). Longitudinal studies of religion and divorce have shown that religious commitment does seem to have a temporal, directional effect on the likelihood of divorce over time (Amato and Rogers 1997; Bulanda and Brown 2007; Perry 2018)
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