Divorce

Changing economic and social conditions at the beginning of the twentieth century created public concern about family breakdown and ushered in the scientific study of marriage and the family. Central to this emerging science was identification of the causes, correlates and consequences of marital dissolution. Increased divorce rates over the course of the century has ensured continued focus on this topic and resulted in a large body of research on the impact of divorce on children. Divorce Rates and Demographics US divorce rates have shown an upward trend over the last century, rising from 0.3 divorces per 1,000 population in 1867, the first year for which national data are available, to a peak of 5.3 per 1,000 population in 1979-81. In the 1980s the divorce rate stabilized and has since trended downward to 4.4 divorces per 1,000 population in 1995. It is projected that approximately one half of the first marriages of the baby boom generation will end in divorce but that the rate will decline to 4 out of 10 for cohorts born more recently. The median length of a first marriage that ends in divorce is 8 years and three out of four men and two out of three women remarry. Divorce is a more likely outcome for second marriages; approximately 60 % en