The Reasons for the Increase in the Divorce Rate
There are many reasons why the divorce rate has increased due to
society changing, over the last fifty years.
Firstly one of the most important one of these is the changes in laws,
new laws have been introduced which have resulted in it becoming a lot
easier for couples to get divorced. The most powerful law which
coincidentally is a recent law is; The Divorce Reform Act of 1969;
this involved a major change in the grounds for divorce. People could
now get divorced without having to prove adultery or domestic
violence, they could just divorce if things weren’t working or they
were unhappy. This law didn’t actually start working until 1971 as it
took a period of time to be enforced. This had a huge affect on the
divorce rates, as now many unhappy married couples were now able to
divorce much easier than before, without having to prove adultery or
violence. The Matrimonial Family Proceedings Act of 1985 is also
another new law which affected the rate of divorce, this allowed
people to get divorced after being married for only one year, whereas
before in 1985 married couples had to wait at least three years before
they could get divorce. This act increased divorces as people split up
on a faster rate if they had problems in their relationship and didn’t
give their marriage a second or longer chance.
Another reason for divorce rates increasing is because getting
divorced is now socially acceptable, due to the current fact that so
many people in society are divorcing and it has also become socially
accepted. It has been accepted in society and even seen as a ‘normal’
thing to do, as a result of the Divorce Reform Act. Many children are
now growing up in single one parent families because of a divorce in
their nuclear family. Rodgers and Pryor (1998) think divorce has a
major affect on children and that they suffer poverty, psychological
and behavioural problems, there standard of education is lower, mental
A century ago, divorce was nearly non-existent due to the cultural and religious pressures placed upon married couples. Though over time Canadians have generally become more tolerate of what was once considered ‘mortal sin’, marital separation and divorce still remain very taboo topics in society. Political leaders are frowned upon when their marriages’ crumble, religions isolate and shun those who break their martial vows and people continue to look down on those who proceed to legally separate their households. With that being said, couples do not just decide to get a divorce for no particular reason. There must be something driving them towards marital dissatisfaction and further, driving them towards divorce.
The Increase in Divorce Rate and Changes in Law A divorce is a legal ending of a marriage between a husband and wife. Divorce rate has increased whenever laws have been passed to make divorce quicker, easier and cheaper and so many people believe that changes in law have led an increase in divorce rate. However, other sociologists argue that changes in law do not cause divorce and that the real reason why people divorce are changing expectations from marriages, the changing attitude of women and declining pressure from family, community and religion against divorce. The 1971 Divorce Reform Act granted divorce on the grounds of 'irretrievable breakdown of marriage' and a divorce can take place after two years of marriage. The 1984 Matrimonial and Family Proceeding Act allowed divorce after 1 year.
Divorce is something that has been discussed and studied many times, as it is becoming more common in the United States. The children are the main ones being effected by the split relationship, however the amount of impact of the effects are based on many variables. I became interested in this subject because my best friends parents recently filed for divorce and I wanted to understand in what ways was this going to affect him in his life now and in the future.
Divorce and remarriage has been a frequently questioned circumstance. As far back as the early church and still considered today. Can a divorced man be an
Divorce can be caused by problems such as drugs, adultery, abuse, and money. The United States is a fast-paced country with little to no time to spend on the basic family values it was founded upon. Jobs are more demanding, kids are spending most of their time with people other than their parents, and the economy drains marriages by causing worry and stress. The foundation upon which marriage was built has been shaken.
American society today is different from our grandparents’ generation. The rising divorce rates, population growth in the suburbs, and the lives of women and mothers working outside the home marked the tremendous social changes in American society today. First of all, America has the highest divorce rate among western nations. Divorce rates increased after every major war, and decreased during the Post-World War II economic boom. The divorce rate has more than doubled since 1940, when there were two divorces for every 1,000 people.
Divorce is becoming a worldwide phenomenon, significantly affecting children’s well-being. It radically changes their future, causing detrimental effects. According to (Julio Cáceres-Delpiano and Eugenio Giolito, 2008) nearly 50% of marriages end with divorce. 90% of children who lived in the USA in the 1960s stayed with their own biological parents, whereas today it makes up only 40% (Hetherington, E. Mavis, and Margaret Stanley-Hagan, 1999). Such an unfavorable problem has been increasing, because in 1969, the California State Legislature changed the divorce laws, where spouses could leave without providing cause (Child Study Center, 2001).
Divorce is a heavy concept that has many implications for those involved. The situation becomes even more consequential when children are considered. As divorce has become more commonplace in society, millions of children are affected by the separation of the nuclear family. How far-reaching are these effects? And is there a time when divorce is beneficial to the lives of the children? This paper will examine some of the major research and several different perspectives regarding the outcomes of divorce for the children involved, and whether it can actually be in the best interest of the kids.
Most people, when thinking about divorce, worry about the impact that it has on the children that are involved. Even though children are most likely better off if totally incompatible parents separate instead of staying together, divorce is about loss and change, and it is still hard for children. Everyone knows that divorce has its effects on children. There are three different sources that try to explain these effects. Graham Blaine Jr. states that divorce is a threat to all children, whereas Rhona Mahony states that divorce is not always the cause of behavioral or academic problems in children coming from divorced families. Yvette Walczak and Sheila Burns state that the extent of the damage can be determined by the parents and their methods of explanation to the children.
Sociological Analysis of Divorce as a Social Problem and Proposed Solutions Every year approximately 2.4 million marriages occur. Out of those,2.1 millionwill file for divorce in the United States. These marriage and divorce rates have significantly increased since the years past(Coltrane and Adams, 364).According to Schoen, in the 1950’s, 15 out of 1,000 marriages ended in divorce. In the 1970’s, the rates of divorcedoubled,increasing to 40 per 1,000 marriages. Currently, the rate of marriages resulting in divorce remains the same.
Divorce is a very common word in today's society. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, "divorce is the legal dissolution of a marriage or a complete or radical severance of closely connected things"(Pickett, 2000). This dissolution of marriage has increased very rapidly in the past fifty years. In 1950 the ratio of divorce to marriage was one in every four; in 1977 that statistic became one in two. Currently one in every two first marriages results in divorce. In second marriages that figure is considerably higher, with a 67% average (National Vital Statistics Report, 2001). One critical aspect of divorce is often not taken into consideration: How it affects children. Every year 1.1 million children are affected by divorce (Benjamin, 2000). Children from divorce or separation often exhibit behavioral and long-term adjustment problems (Kelly, 2000). Throughout this paper I will discuss divorces effects on children at different age levels, how they react, and what can be done to help them.
One tough thing about today's American family is divorce. In 1816, one marriage out of one hundred ended in divorce. Then between the years 1869-1888, divorce increased up to one hundred and fifty percent. And the worse, between the years 1960-1980, the divorce rate increased up to two hundred and fifty percent. Divorce rates peaked in 1981 and then started to decline a little during the mid 1980's. However, divorce rates now are as high as they have ever been. Now fifty percent of all marriages end in divorce. There are five reasons for the increase in divorce. The first reason is in modern societies; individual happiness is regarded to be important so when people are unhappy with their marriage, they break-up and split. The second reason is it is easier to get divorced financially. The third reason is that women's economic independence has contributed. The fourth reason is the stigma of divorce has lessened so people are not
However, the divorce rates trend to continually increase nowadays, thus it might be argued that divorces can take place easier than in the past. There are three main causes of divorce: changing women’s roles, stress in modern living and lack of communication, which are highlighted below. The first significant cause of the recent rise in the rates of divorce is that women completely change roles. In the past, men have to earn whole money to afford the expenses of family, whereas women only do housework, hence women have no money leading to depend on husbands’ money. Because of these situations, it is too difficult for most women to separate from their husbands.
Do you know that our divorce rate in America is 50%? This means that 50% of all marriages in America end in divorce. This means that more than hundreds of people are getting divorced right at this moment. You may ask, what are the divorce rates in America for first marriage, vs. second or third marriage? 50% of first marriages, 67% of second and 74% of third marriages end in divorce, according to Jennifer Baker of the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology in Springfield, Missouri. This means that more people are getting divorced on their third marriage.
DIVORCE Every individual hopes that they will never be faced with the word, “DIVORCE”. Divorce is the legal ending of a marriage caused by arguments between a man and a woman’s point of view or simply because they just got tired of each other. Whatever the reason is, a divorce can break families apart and can cause many physiological damages. A divorce can make a child’s life horrible.