Understanding the Divorce Cycle
The Children of Divorce in their Own Marriages

Wolfinger argues that no-fault divorce laws should be left in place.

Nicholas H. Wolfinger (Author)

9780521851169, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 July 2005

194 pages, 10 b/w illus. 5 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.46 kg

'The story about divorce is far from uniformly positive, but one cannot conceal some positive changes; therefore this book is a must-read for research scholars and policy makers.' Journal for the Study of Marriage and Spirituality

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 most powerful is the divorce cycle, the transmission of divorce from one generation to the next. This book examines how the divorce cycle has transformed family life in contemporary America by drawing on two national data sets. Compared to people from intact families, the children of divorce are more likely to marry as teenagers, but less likely to wed overall, more likely to marry 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 consequences of parental divorce have abated even as divorce itself proliferated and became more socially accepted. Taken together, these findings show how parental divorce is a strong force in people's lives and society as a whole.

1. Introduction
2. Why divorce begets divorce
3. Coupling and uncoupling
4. How strong is the divorce cycle?
5. Historical developments
6. The cohabitation revolution
7. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Social, group or collective psychology [JMH], Sociology & anthropology [JH]