IP ch.13
What do researchers think contribute to divorce and how is this different from people's perceptions of what caused their divorce?
At the broadest level are cultural norms and other variables set the national stage for marriage. No-fault divorce laws and discrimination that constrains economic opportunity are examples of the ways in which the cultural context may either support or undermine marital success. More idiosyncratic are our personal contexts,the social networks of family and friends and the physical neighborhoods we inhabit. For instance, as I noted earlier, women who work with a wide variety of interesting male colleagues are more prone to divorce than are women who do not work outside their homes (McKinnish, 2007). Finally, there is a relational context that describes the intimate environment couples create through their own perceptions of, and interactions with, each other. The individual characteristics that lead us to react to our partners with either chronic good humor or pessimistic caution are some of the building blocks of the particular atmosphere that pervades a partnership.
What were the findings of the early years of marriage project with regard to race? What does it suggest about economic hardship?
Black couples were more likely to divorce. Black couples had cohabitated for a longer period and were more likely to have had children before getting married. They also had lower incomes and were more likely to come from broken homes, and all of these influences are positively correlated with one's risk of divorce.
Be familiar with the German Socio-Economic Panel Study. Do those who divorce start out as happy as those who don't? What effect does becoming a widow/widower have on satisfaction with life ratings?
But on the whole, getting married did make people happier for a while, but a few years later they were no happier than they had been before they wed. Being widowed was dreadful, and despite substantial healing, it had lasting negative effects. And most divorces ended a long period of declining happiness—but years later, divorced people remained less happy than those whose marriages were intact.divorced or widowed during the study, and on average, both events were dreadful, causing big drops in people's satisfaction with their lives.
Has marital satisfaction increased, decreased or stayed the same over the last 25 years?
Decreased
*What are the 3 hypotheses regarding why couples divorce according to the PAIR Project? Which predicted happiness? Divorce? (pgs 404-6). Be able to explain why researchers believe these 2 findings are true. How are the level of satisfaction and the degree of change in satisfaction impact divorce rates?
Enduring dynamics: Spouses may bring to their marriages problems that surfaced during courtship 2. Emergent distress: The problems that destroy a couple begin after they marry, so that, when they begin, there aren't any obvious differences between marriages that will succeed and those that will fail 3. Disillusionment: Couples typically begin their marriages with rosy, romanticized views of their relationship that are unrealistically positive Happiness was predicted by the enduring dynamics model Divorce was predicted by the disillusionment model Doubts or difficulties that people face while engaged will not disappear once married. Indecision or incompatibilities simply import into the marital relationship. The drop in marital satisfaction during the first years of marriage is sharp and more pronounced. Their love faded more, and more rapidly, than did the romances of other couples. The level of satisfaction a couple experiences and the change in that satisfaction over time are key players in relational outcomes.
what are people's relationships like with former spouses (when children are involved)? What % have amicable relationships with a spouse a year after the divorce?
Four Broad Types - Fiery Foes: spouses' animosity toward each other still defines their relationship. Have some capacity to work together in co-parenting their children Angry Associates: Have very little capacity to work together to co-parent; their bitterness keeps them at constant odds Cooperative Colleagues: Aren't good friends, but they are civil and pleasant to each other and they are able to cooperate successfully in parenting tasks Perfect Pals: maintain "a strong friendship with mutual respect that did not get eroded by their decision to live separate lives" (Ahrons, p. 116). Half the ex-spouses had amicable relationships (38% Cooperative Colleagues, 12% Perfect Pals) and half had distressed relationships (25% Angry Associates and 25% Fiery Foes) a year after their divorces.
According to Baxter's research (pg.408-11), do most college students' dating relationships break via direct or indirect means? Do most couples engage in a formal effort to repair their relationship before they break up?
In some instances, the effort to disengage was direct, or explicitly stated; however, in most cases, people used indirect strategies in which they tried to end the relationship without ever saying so. the single most common manner in which premarital relationships ended involved gradual dissatisfaction that led one of the two partners to make repeated efforts to dissolve the relationship without ever announcing that intention and without engaging in any attempts to improve or repair the partnership. (persevering indirectness - ⅓ of the time)
*Know the phases of Duck's relational dissolution model (pgs 414)
Intrapsychic phase - Reflect on the negative aspects of the relationship 2. Dyadic phase - Communicate dissatisfaction. Negotiation, arguments, discussions 3. Social phase - Tell social support network and consolidate support. Consider alternatives 4. Grave-dressing phase - Emotional repair must occur following break up (Divide property, custody issues). Construct story of why relationship failed to justify actions and save face
It is harder to be rejected or to do the rejecting?
It's generally harder to be rejected than to do the rejecting
Who is most likely to break up, same sex female, same sex male, heterosexual cohabiting or heterosexual married couples? What role do civil unions appear to play with regard to break up rates (pg. 396)?
Lesbian couples (cohabitating) Civil unions up the ante (stakes). They are harder to dissolve and people who make such commitments are likely to stand by them.
What are the average ages of first divorce for men and women?
Men: 31.8 & Women: 29.4
How soon does the average person remarry after divorce? What happens to one's social network? What about financial situation? Six years after the divorce, what do most people report about their experience?
Only two-thirds (68 percent) of those who get divorced after their mid-20s ever remarry, but those who do have usually taken the plunge for the second time within 4 years, on average (Elliott & Simmons, 2011). Social Networks: However, people usually lose about half of the members of their social networks (such as some friends and most of the in-laws) when their mar- riages end, and in many cases, ex-spouses never make enough new friends to replace the ones they've lost (Terhell et al., 2004). So, people typically have smaller social networks for years following a divorce. Financial Situation: So, if you count the number of mouths ex-spouses have to feed, men's per capita income goes up 34 percent in the year after they divorce whereas mothers' incomes drop 36 percent (Sayer, 2006). A woman's household incomes drops substantially, by about 27 percent. 6 years after divorce?
*Be familiar with the parental loss, parental stress, economic hardship and parental conflict models of why divorce has an impact on children. Which currently has the greatest support? Do the effects of divorce typically continue over time? Is it typically more detrimental for kids to experience divorce or be on in highly conflict homes? Know the Graham et al, 2013 study on babies. Know figure 13.5
Parental loss: children are presumed to benefit from having two parents who are devoted to their care, and children who lose a parent for any reason, including divorce, are likely to be less well off Parental stress: holds that the quality, not the quantity, of the parenting a child receives is key, and any stressor (including divorce) that distracts or debilitates one's parents can have detrimental effects. Economic hardship: iit may be the impoverished circumstances that sometimes follow divorce, not just the divorce per se, that adds to children's burdens. Any difficulties faced by the children are reduced if the custodial parent has sufficient resources to support them well (Sun & Li, 2002). Parental conflict: Acrimonious interactions between parents appear to be hard on children, and whether or not a divorce occurs, conflict in the home is associated with more anxiety (Riggio, 2004), poorer health (Miller & Chen, 2010), and more problematic behavior (Musick & Meier, 2010) in children. But if they live amidst constant conflict, children are worse off when the parents don't divorce; when a divorce breaks up an angry, embattled household, there's almost no decrease in the children's well-being at all (Amato, 2003). Children suffer when a peaceable marriage is disrupted, but they are better off going through a divorce if their homes are full of conflict (Musick & Meier, 2010). Remarkably, even when babies are sleeping, the regions of their brains that regulate emotion and stress respond strongly to the sound of angry voices—if the babies live in high-conflict homes (Graham et al., 2013).
What attachment styles tend to have a harder time "letting go" of a romantic relationship? How is looking at your ex-partner's facebook page associated with healing?
People with insecure styles of attachment who are anxious about abandonment are particularly likely to have trouble mentally letting go. They remain preoccupied with the ex-partner (and are especially upset at the thought of him or her with someone new), so they remain sadder longer than others do (Sbarra, 2006). People with secure attachment styles fare better after break- ups. They brood less, so they're less likely to stay angry. They're also more likely to accept the finality of the relationship's end, so they start healing and recover from sadness sooner
Who is more likely to maintain a relationship with an ex-partner, heterosexual or same sex couples?
Same sex couples
Are the reasons for, effects of, or way one communicates a desire to break up a relationship different between opposite and same sex couples?
Similar for both types of couples
Read and know the synthesis of the literature on predictors of divorce on pg.409-10. Who has a greater respect for marriage on average? Does that predict that a couple will stay together?
Socioeconomic status - lower status, more likely for divorce Education - more education, less divorce (especially true for women) Race - African Americans most at risk (correlative) Sex ratios - more divorce with more women Social mobility - more mobile people, less social support, more likely for divorce No fault divorces - contributes to how easy it is to get a divorce now compared to the 60s Women working - financial security first, the divorce Age at marriage - after 25, less likely to divorce Prior marriage - serial marriages more likely to divorce Parental divorce - more likely to divorce Religion - if one partner is religious, and other isn't, more likely to divorce Cohabitation before engagement - more likely to divorce Birth of child before marriage - more likely to divorce Children - less likely to divorce with kids, but more likely to divorce with daughters Step children - women bringing in more children, more likely to divorce Dissimilarity between partners Personality (neuroticism), attachment style (high intimacy avoiders) Socioeconomic status - lower status, more likely for divorce Education - more education, less divorce (especially true for women) Race - African Americans most at risk (correlative) Sex ratios - more divorce with more women Social mobility - more mobile people, less social support, more likely for divorce No fault divorces - contributes to how easy it is to get a divorce now compared to the 60s Women working - financial security first, the divorce Age at marriage - after 25, less likely to divorce Prior marriage - serial marriages more likely to divorce Parental divorce - more likely to divorce Religion - if one partner is religious, and other isn't, more likely to divorce Cohabitation before engagement - more likely to divorce Birth of child before marriage - more likely to divorce Children - less likely to divorce with kids, but more likely to divorce with daughters Step children - women bringing in more children, more likely to divorce Dissimilarity between partners Personality (neuroticism), attachment style (high intimacy avoiders) Stressful life events Spend less time together
Be familiar with the Karney and Bradbury vulnerability-stress-adaptation model
Some people enter marriage with enduring vulnerabilities that increase their risk of divorce. Suhc vulnerability might include adverse experience in one's family of origin, poor education, maladaptive personality traits, bad social skills, or dysfunctional attitudes towards marriage. Almost every marriage must face occasional stressful events that require the partners to provide support to one another to adjust to new circumstances
What typically happens to dating couples' relationships in the months after they break up? Are young adults typically accurate in their predictions of distress initially and over time?
Their adjustment continued, however, and after another 2 weeks, they were no sadder than their peers and their relief had rebounded. A month into the process, they were noticeably less in love and their courage and strength were returning. In advance of a breakup, the participants correctly predicted the rate with which their distress would fade with time—they knew that time would heal their wounds—but they overestimated the initial pain they would feel when the breakup occurred.
About how many couples stay together (don't divorce) for at least 10 years? What is the average length of marriage in the US?
Two-thirds (64 percent) stay for at least 10 years; average length of a marriage is 18 years
*What factors does your text cite for the current divorce rate (pg. 400-1)?
We expect more out of marriage, holding it to higher standards. Working women have more financial freedom and better access to attractive alternatives, and they experience corrosive conflict between work and family. Creeping individualism and social mobility leave us less tied to, and less affected by, community norms that discourage divorce. New laws have made divorce more socially acceptable and easier to obtain. Casual cohabitation weakens commitment to marriage. Children of divorce are more likely to divorce when they become adults. More of us have friends who are divorced.
What is churning? Is it associated with relational satisfaction?
When partners break up but then reconcile and get back together (in some cases, doing so several times). Usually disadvantageous in relationships that continue, as it is associated with stress and uncertainty and generally lower satisfaction
Is our divorce rate higher, lower or about equal to that of Sweden, Canada, Mexico, France and England?
higher
