¶ … Divorce Culture
The objective of this study is to answer the question of whether the popular argument that children are better off when divorce makes one or both of the child's parents happier is true as argued by Barbara Defoe Whitehead.
The work of Barbara Dafoe Whitehead gained attention when she wrote the book 'The Divorce Culture'. Whitehead speaks of 'expressive divorce' or the notion that "divorce is an instrument for self-development, self-actualization, self-expression -- that is a way to be a new and better me. That is, one is obligated to pursue divorce if it seems to promise greater personal happiness and that obligation comes before other obligations in the marital commitment." (Miller, 1997) However, Dafoe additionally states divorce has "…hurt children…has created economic insecurity and disadvantage for many children who would not otherwise be economically vulnerable. It has led to more fragile and unstable family households. It has caused mass exodus of fathers from children's households, and, all too often from their lives. It has reduced the levels of parental time and money invested in children. In sum, it has changed the very nature of American childhood." (nd)
Statement of Thesis
Barbara Dafoe Whitehead writes that individuals in the United States feel that there is an entitlement or an inherent 'right' to a divorce but that this has caused great harm rather than contributing to the self-actualization of individuals. It is held that divorce results in happier children when the parents cannot get along however, it is the contention of this writer that children suffer greatly when parents divorce and that there is not really a possibility of a 'good' divorce.
The Research
Robert Hughes, Associate Professor and Extension Specialist in the Department of Human Development and Family Science at Ohio State University states that the divorce rate in the United States "has been generally been going up throughout the 20th century until its peak in the late 1970s. The rate of divorce has been slowly declining since that peak. In the most recent data, there were about 20 divorces for every 1,000 women over the age of 15. This number is down from about 23 divorces per 1,000 women in 1978, but it is still significantly greater than the rate of divorce during the 1950s. At that time, the rate of divorce was about 5 per 1,000 women." (Hughes, 2004, p.1) Factors that affect the climbing divorce rate include: (1) men and women are less in need of each other for economic survival, and (2) gains made in birth control allow men and women to separate sexual activity from having children. (Hughes, 2004, p.1)
Hughes (2004) specifically states "It is important to note that while divorce increases children's risk for a variety of problems, not all children who experience divorce have problems. Children of divorce are twice as likely as children living in nondivorced families to experience difficulties. Roughly, 20% to 25% of these children will have problems. Another way of saying this is that 75% to 80% will not experience these difficulties. In other words, while children of divorce are at greater risk, most will not have major problems." (p.1)
In addition, Hughes relates that children from divorce parents have more academic problems, are more aggressive in school, and are more likely to get into trouble with authorities at the school or to be in trouble with the police. Furthermore, these children are reported to be more likely to "…have low self-esteem and feel depressed. Children who grow up in divorced families often have more difficulties getting along with siblings, peers, and their parents. Also, in adolescence, they are more likely to engage in delinquent activities, to get involved in early sexual activity, and to experiment with illegal drugs. In adolescence and young adulthood, they are more likely to have some difficulty forming intimate relationships and establishing independence from their families." (Hughes, 2004, p.1)
Research findings are stated to indicate that boys tend to experience more difficulties than girls following divorce. Boys are reported to be more likely to get into fights while girls are...
All of the couples shared the following conditions: both living in Israel, divorced for at least 1 1/2 years, at least one child between 2 and 16 years of age, and the mother having custody (Nehami, 2003). Furthermore, the fathers all had contact with their children after the divorce, which is not universal (Nehami, 2003). This is a very specific sample. It would be difficult to suggest that the
Divorce Insight Into the Quandaries of Marriage and Divorce The American conundrum surrounding the institution of marriage (high marriage rates combined with nearly equally high divorce rates) can be summed up in one pithy proclamation: people get married for the wrong reasons. Love, once considered a prerequisite for a proposed lifelong commitment to another, is so much of a forgone conclusion in modern times that it rarely factors into the equation for
Divorce is a traumatic experience for a child under any circumstances. They were certainly so in mine, in which several intervening factors complicated the ability to develop effective psychological coping mechanisms. I was nine years old when my parents got divorced. The divorce was not due to mutual consent or irreconcilable differences but the fact that my mother had an affair with my father's best friend, subsequently leaving the country.
The no fault law should be revised, and ensured that the motives for the marriage were investigated at the time of the divorce. If the motives and actions indicate that the marriage would've ended in a divorce eventually, the appeal for divorce should be shot down. Moreover, the newspapers and selected electronic media has a duty to not publicize celebrity divorces as if they are some gallant acts, but
(Coleman et al., 2006) there are more significant differences between race and ethnic groups in beliefs about intergenerational assistance than are expected by chance the differences are not large. As expected, White European-Americans perceive that less help should be given to older adults than is true of African-Americans and Asian-Americans. Unexpectedly, European-Americans and Latinos rarely differ in their beliefs about intergenerational assistance. When differences exist among the three minority
Divorce and Communication In the past few decades, divorces have become much more common than they traditionally were. Lack of communication has been identified by psychologists, marriage counselors, and clergy members as the main reason why families end in divorce. The last-reported U.S. divorce rate for a calendar year, available as of May, 2005, was .38% divorces per capita per year (National Center for Health Statistics, 2005). Since every divorce involves
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now