Intergenerational Transmission Of Divorce Research Articles

Young Adult’s Outlook on Marriage: The Influence of Parental Divorce, Family of Origin Functioning and Attachment Style

ABSTRACT To elucidate reasons for the variability in attitudes toward marriage held by adult children of divorce, the current, mixed-methods study examined the influence of parental divorce and remarriage(s), family of origin functioning and attachment style variables on young adults’ attitudes toward marriage. Participants who experienced their parents’ divorce, perceived high levels of conflict in their family of origin, were single and presented with discomfort in close relationships were more likely to express negativity in their outlook on marriage. Participants who denied religiosity and perceived their parents as encouraging independence while growing up were more likely to express an ambivalent attitude toward marriage. Lastly, men and those who had experienced their parents remarriage(s) were more likely to express positivity in their outlook on marriage. Although other factors were influential, parental divorce may promote negativity in young adults’ attitudes toward marriage, which possibly contributes to the “intergenerational transmission of divorce.”

Designing and Validating a Model for Preventing the Intergenerational Transmission of Divorce (ITD) and its Effectiveness on Boredom and Marital Expectations

Aim: Each parent plays a vital role in the life of their children and intergenerational transmission of divorce shows that children who experience the divorce of their parents are more exposed to marital injuries. the goal of this study was to design and validate a model for preventing the intergenerational transmission of divorce in the children of single guardians due to divorce and its effectiveness on boredom and marital expectations.
 Methods: The present research was conducted with a mixed exploratory type. For the qualitative part of the research, classical grounded theory was used, while for the quantitative part a quasi-experimental method of experimental group - control group with pre and post test with follow-up was used. Research participants in the qualitative section included interviews with 26 couples with single-parent families resulting from divorce and the research sample in quantitative part included 32 couples with a single-parent family due to divorce. The qualitative part of the research was conducted with semi-structured interviews and the research tools in the quantitative part included the Omiedvar Marital Expectations and Pines Marital Burnout Questionnaires. In order to analyze the data, repeated measurement analysis of variance was used.
 Findings: From the total findings of the qualitative section, five main categories which expressed the marital damage of single-parent children caused by divorce discover and based on them and the opinion of experts the model for prevention of intergenerational transmission of divorce in single-parent children due to divorce was designed. Data analysis showed the effectiveness of the divorce prevention model on intergenerational transmission of divorce on boredom and marital expectations (p<0.01).
 Conclusion: Based on the results of the present study, the model presented in this study can be used in preventing intergenerational transfer of divorce and to ensure and enduring married life for children of divorce.

The Intergenerational Transmission of Divorce: Evidence from China

The paper investigates the intergenerational transmission of divorce in China with the data from The China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). The empirical results show that parental divorce increases the odd ratio of children’s divorce significantly by 104.12% in complementary log-log model at 5% level with control variables, which means the probability of their children’s divorce will increase significantly. We adopt two models to investigate the heterogeneity in the intergenerational transmission of divorce. Firstly, according to the age when children experiencing parental divorce, the sample is divided into four groups:0-3 years old, 4-11 years old, 12-17 years old and over 17 years old. Secondly, based on whether parents remarry or not, the sample is also divided into four groups: none, just father, just mother and both remarry. The estimation results show that, the effect of parental divorce is more significant for those who experienced the parental divorce between the age of 4 and 11, the odds ratio would add by 174.39% significantly in complementary log-log model at 5% level with control variables. If just father remarried after parental divorced, odds ratio of divorce would increase by 361.09% in complementary log-log model at 1% level with control variables.

Intergenerational Transmission of Divorce and Its Mechanisms in Japan

Intergenerational Transmission of Divorce and Its Mechanisms in Japan

The effects of parental divorce on individuals’ commitment to same-sex relationships

Research on the intergenerational transmission of divorce has demonstrated that individuals who come from divorced families have reduced commitment to the institution of marriage, which may translate to reduced commitment to one’s current relationship. We tested the association between two components of relationship commitment (dedication and constraint) and parental divorce in a sample of 251 adults in same-sex relationships. Results demonstrated that parental divorce was significantly associated with lower dedication commitment among women, but not men. Parental divorce was not associated with constraint commitment for either gender. These findings suggest that, consistent with research on individuals in different-sex relationships, women in same-sex relationships who come from divorced families may feel less dedicated to their own relationships, putting them at greater risk for relationship instability and divorce.

Genetics, the Rearing Environment, and the Intergenerational Transmission of Divorce: A Swedish National Adoption Study

We used classical and extended adoption designs in Swedish registries to disentangle genetic and rearing-environment influences on the intergenerational transmission of divorce. In classical adoption analyses, adoptees (n = 19,715) resembled their biological parents, rather than their adoptive parents, in their history of divorce. In extended adoption analyses, offspring (n = 82,698) resembled their not-lived-with fathers and their lived-with mothers. There was stronger resemblance to lived-with mothers, providing indirect evidence of rearing-environment influences on the intergenerational transmission of divorce. The heritability of divorce assessed across generations was 0.13. We attempted to replicate our findings using within-generation data from adoptive and biological siblings (ns = 8,523–53,097). Adoptees resembled their biological, not adoptive, siblings in their history of divorce. Thus, there was consistent evidence that genetic factors contributed to the intergenerational transmission of divorce but weaker evidence for a rearing-environment effect of divorce. Within-generation data from siblings supported these conclusions.

The Intergenerational Transmission of Union Instability in Early Adulthood.

Research on the intergenerational transmission of divorce should be expanded to incorporate disrupted nonmarital cohabitations. The current study (1) examined the transmission of union instability from parents to offspring using Waves I and IV of Add Health, (2) replaced the binary variables (divorced versus non-divorced) typically used in this literature with count variables (number of disrupted unions), (3) relied on independent sources for data on parents' and offspring's union disruptions to minimize same-source bias, (4) assessed the mediating role of 11 theoretically derived variables (many not previously considered in this literature), and (5) incorporated information on discord in intact parental unions. Parent and offspring union disruptions were positively linked, with each parental disruption associated with a 16% increase in the number of offspring disruptions, net of controls. The mediators collectively accounted for 44% of the estimated intergenerational effect. Parent discord in intact unions also was associated with more offspring disruptions.

The Intergenerational Transmission of Divorce: A Fifteen-Country Study with the Fertility and Family Survey

Abstract Studies mainly from the United States provide evidence that children of divorced parents face a higher risk of divorce in their own marriages. We estimate and analyze the effects of divorce transmission using comparative individual data from the United Nations for 13 eastern and western European countries as well as for Canada and the United States. We find substantial and highly statistically significant transmission effects in all samples. This shows that the intergenerational transmission of divorce is a widespread phenomenon observed without a single exception in our data covering a large number of countries with differing historical, institutional, and cultural contexts.

More Evidence for Trends in the Intergenerational Transmission of Divorce: A Completed Cohort Approach Using Data From the General Social Survey

Many studies have demonstrated that the children of divorce are disproportionately likely to end their own marriages. In previous work, I showed that the transmission of divorce between generations weakened substantially for General Social Survey (GSS) respondents interviewed between 1973 and 1996 (Wolfinger 1999); Li and Wu (2006, 2008) contended that my finding is a methodological artifact of the GSS's lack of marriage duration data. This article presents a completed-cohort approach to studying divorce using the GSS. The results confirm a decline in the probability of divorce transmission that cannot be explained by the right-censoring bias alleged by Li and Wu. This finding contributes to an ongoing debate about trends in the negative consequences of parental divorce, as well as demonstrating a useful approach to right-censored phenomena when event history data are not available.

The influence of offspring's sex and age at parents’ divorce on the intergenerational transmission of divorce, Norwegian first marriages 1980–2003

Whether a couple remain married or divorce has repeatedly been shown to be of importance for the marital stability of their children. This paper addresses the related question of whether the intergenerational transmission of divorce is contingent on the age at which parents divorced and the sex of the spouse who experienced the parents’ divorce. Using a population-wide data-set on Norwegian first marriages followed from 1980 to 2003, we find that the intergenerational transmission hypothesis holds also for Norway, that this relationship is stronger for women than for men, and that there is a negative age gradient in the transmission effect for women. The experience of multiple family transitions, such as a parent's remarriage or a second divorce, does not affect couples’ divorce risk.

No trend in the intergenerational transmission of divorce.

Previous studies on trends in the intergenerational transmission of divorce have produced mixed findings, with two studies (McLanahan and Bumpass 1988; Teachman 2002) reporting no trend in divorce transmission and one study (Wolfinger 1999) finding that divorce transmission has weakened substantially. Using a stratified Cox proportional hazard model, we analyze data from the National Survey of Families and Households and find no evidence for any trend in divorce transmission. To reconcile apparent differences in results, we note that the General Social Survey data used by Wolfinger lack information on marital duration, permitting analysis only for whether respondents have divorced by interview. As a result, an apparent decline in divorce transmission could be due to inadequate adjustments for the longer exposures to risk by earlier marriage cohorts, yielding a higher probability of divorce by interview for earlier cohorts relative to more recent cohorts even if divorce risks are identical across all marriage cohorts. We confirm this possibility by using a series of discrete-time hazard logistic regressions to investigate the sensitivity of estimates of trends in divorce transmission to different adjustments for exposure to risk. We conclude that there has been no trend in the intergenerational transmission of divorce.

Effects of parental divorce on marital commitment and confidence.

Research on the intergenerational transmission of divorce has demonstrated that compared with offspring of nondivorced parents, those of divorced parents generally have more negative attitudes toward marriage as an institution and are less optimistic about the feasibility of a long-lasting, healthy marriage. It is also possible that when entering marriage themselves, adults whose parents divorced have less personal relationship commitment to their own marriages and less confidence in their own ability to maintain a happy marriage with their spouse. However, this prediction has not been tested. In the current study, we assessed relationship commitment and relationship confidence, as well as parental divorce and retrospectively reported interparental conflict, in a sample of 265 engaged couples prior to their first marriage. Results demonstrated that women's, but not men's, parental divorce was associated with lower relationship commitment and lower relationship confidence. These effects persisted when controlling for the influence of recalled interparental conflict and premarital relationship adjustment. The current findings suggest that women whose parents divorced are more likely to enter marriage with relatively lower commitment to, and confidence in, the future of those marriages, potentially raising their risk for divorce.

Family structure homogamy: The effects of parental divorce on partner selection and marital stability

Although it is well established that the children of divorce are disproportionately likely to end their own marriages, relatively little is known about their marriage formation behavior. This paper uses data from the National Survey of Families and Households to examine the effects of parental family structure on spouse selection and marriage duration. People from divorced families often marry other children of divorce. This phenomenon, which I call family structure homogamy, persists across a variety of sociodemographic boundaries. In addition, I replicate earlier research by demonstrating that marriages between two children of divorce are especially likely to fail. These findings shed new light on the intergenerational transmission of divorce by showing that people from divorced families often marry under conditions that bode poorly for marital stability.

Childhood Living Arrangements and the Intergenerational Transmission of Divorce

Using detailed data on the childhood living arrangements of children taken from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), the impact of multiple dimensions of parent histories on the likelihood of offspring divorce is investigated. Although past research is replicated by finding a positive impact of parental divorce on offspring divorce, the author also finds that living apart from both parents, irrespective of the reason, is associated with an increased risk of divorce. In particular, children who were born out of wedlock and who did not experience parental divorce or death experience a very high risk of marital disruption. However, neither the number of transitions in childhood living arrangements nor parental remarriage appear to substantially affect the risk of marital dissolution. Finally, variations in the timing of and circumstances surrounding marriage appear to mediate a substantial proportion of the effect of parent histories on offspring divorce.

Differences in Family Policies and the Intergenerational Transmission of Divorce

Differences in Family Policies and the Intergenerational Transmission of Divorce

The Intergenerational Transmission of Divorce

The focus of this paper examines one family, which converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, almost 140 years ago. These family members are distributed across nine generations. Direct descendants are the children and children's children and number 12,387. Total family includes all of the children and those who married into the family as well. The total for all family members is 17,346. Information obtained from the collection process is essentially a complete record of all the posterity at the time of collection. This study examines the intergenerational transmission of divorce among this family across nine generations. Results indicate that children from divorced homes are significantly more likely to get divorced than children from non-divorced homes. Explanations for this finding are discussed.

Trends in the intergenerational transmission of divorce

I use data from the 1973-1996 NORC General Social Survey to examine trends in the intergenerational transmission of divorce, the propensity for the children of divorce to end their own marriages. The rate of divorce transmission declined by almost 50% in the study period. This result was essentially unchanged by statistical controls for various personal and family background differences between respondents.

Withdrawal Threshold in Interpersonal Conflict Among Adolescents of Divorced Parents

ABSTRACT The present study examines one possible explanation for the intergenerational transmission of divorce: a long‐term effect of learned lower withdrawal threshold. The underlying assumption here is that people differ in their readiness to struggle in a relationship before reaching the point at which they withdraw and that this withdrawal threshold is modelled and learned in the family. More specifically, the study tests the hypothesis that adolescents of divorced parents exhibit a lower withdrawal threshold in various depicted interpersonal conflict situations. The study's sample consisted 215 adolescents, including 58 (25 boys and 33 girls) of divorced parents and 157 (74 boys and 83 girls) of married parents. Two questionnaires were specially constructed to test the present study's research question: the Adolescents’ Withdrawal Threshold in Interpersonal Conflicts Questionnaire, which depicted 30 different interpersonal conflict situations, and the Adolescents’ Perception of Divorce as Indicator of Withdrawal Threshold. The results do not support the study's main hypothesis. That is, adolescents with divorced parents do not respond to depicted interpersonal conflict situations with a lower withdrawal threshold than those from intact families. However, the results do show that adolescents from intact families are more likely than those with divorced parents to judge divorce as indicating a low withdrawal threshold. These and other results are discussed within the framework of the behavioural‐modelling theory and in terms of the generalisability of divorce as a kind of withdrawal response to other types of conflict.

Relationship-Specific Cognitions and Family-of-Origin Divorce and Abuse

This study examined the relationship between relationship-specific cognitions and family-of-origin divorce, psychological abuse, and physical aggression. College students from divorced (N=46) and intact (N= 66) families completed questionnaires regarding their family-of-origin victimization, witnessing, and perpetration experiences as well as their relationship cognitions. A series of 2 (divorce vs. intact) by 3 severity level (none, psychological, physical) MANOVAS were conducted to assess the relationships among divorce, witnessing, perpetration, and victimization experiences with mother and father, and current relationship cognitions (assumptions, standards, and expectancies). Subjects from divorced homes reported significantly lower marriage-efficacy than subjects from intact homes. Subjects who reported physical victimization from fathers had significantly lower marriage-efficacy and lower self-efficacy than non-physically-victimized subjects. A trend was found whereby subjects who psychologically perpetrated against their mothers endorsed more dysfunctional relationship assumptions and standards and lower efficacy expectancies of partners than did those who reported no psychological or physical perpetratation against their mothers. Experiences of witnessing parental psychological and physical abuse were not related to dysfunctional relationship cognitions. These findings are discussed within an intergenerational transmission of divorce and violence framework.

Intimacy in Young Adult Males' Relationships as a Function of Divorced and Non-Divorced Family of Origin Structure

This study investigates the long-term effect that parental divorce may have on the levels of intimacy in the relationships of young men with their girlfriends, their willingness to make up and readiness to break up relationships, and their expectancies regarding marriage. The sample contained 40 male soldiers, serving duty in the Israeli army. Twenty were from intact families, and twenty were from divorced families. The results show no differences between the groups on any of the measured variables. These results are discussed in the context of the reasons given for the intergenerational transmission of divorce.