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Estimates and Meanings of Marital Separation
Journal of Marriage and Family
Abstract
Marital separation is an informal transition that may precede or substitute for divorce. Various surveys collect data on marital separation, but the data have produced mixed estimates. The authors used data from the 1995 and 2006 waves of the National Survey of Family Growth (N = 2,216) and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 cohort (NLSY79; N = 1,990) to examine separations among women born between 1961 and 1965. In the National Survey of Family Growth, separations were typically short and followed by divorce. In the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 cohort, separations were longer and less likely to end in divorce. The authors relate these discrepancies to differences in study design, question universe, and question wording between the 2 surveys and show that different measures of separation lead to different conclusions about educational and racial/ethnic inequalities in the trajectories of marital disruption.
... First, methodological and theoretical constraints have led to treating the separation and divorce situations as indistinguishable. 2 This confounding of the two circumstances, which in reality are discrete and sequentially ordered, meant that researchers could not distinguish if private support began during a separation period or after a divorce decree. Although past studies found that ever-separated couples do not necessarily end their marriage with divorce (Kitson, 1985;Morgan, 1988), only recently have studies argued that separation and divorce are distinct post-marital states requiring recognition in research approaches (Amato, 2010;Bumpass & Raley, 2007;Cherlin, 2017;Tumin et al., 2015). Second, since separation has increasingly ended in reconciliation or a semi-permanent state of separation without divorce (Cherlin, 2017;Tumin et al., 2015), marital separation could have been conceptualized as an informal, short-term event lacking sufficient duration to study receipt of ISH (McDaniel & Coleman, 2003;Vennum et al., 2014;Wineberg, 1994). ...
... Although past studies found that ever-separated couples do not necessarily end their marriage with divorce (Kitson, 1985;Morgan, 1988), only recently have studies argued that separation and divorce are distinct post-marital states requiring recognition in research approaches (Amato, 2010;Bumpass & Raley, 2007;Cherlin, 2017;Tumin et al., 2015). Second, since separation has increasingly ended in reconciliation or a semi-permanent state of separation without divorce (Cherlin, 2017;Tumin et al., 2015), marital separation could have been conceptualized as an informal, short-term event lacking sufficient duration to study receipt of ISH (McDaniel & Coleman, 2003;Vennum et al., 2014;Wineberg, 1994). ...
... Although marital separation is a distinct period preceding divorce or reconciliation (Amato, 2010;Bumpass & Raley, 2007;Tumin et al., 2015;Vennum et al., 2014), this crucial period of time has been discounted. Yet, especially for women experiencing poverty, the period of marital separation might make the difference between seeking help from informal support networks and having to rely on public assistance. ...
The private economic assistance that women experiencing poverty can potentially receive during a marital separation has been largely overlooked. This study investigates determinants of economic aid from family, friends, and private community organizations among women experiencing marital separation and poverty. Such private social help may make the difference between an informal but flexible support network and a formal but routine social safety net. Using panel data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), this study found that the odds of a woman receiving private help to make ends meet during a period of marital separation and poverty were associated with her human capital, command over marital assets, employment, and duration of the separation. Separated women with fewer economic resources or more urgent economic needs were more likely to receive informal social help. The growing dependency on private assistance over the duration of marital separation also suggests the chronic strain model that economic hardship is a chronic stress for women after separation.
... A small body of literature has conceptualized and treated separation as distinct from divorce and has primarily examined outcome predictors and instability in reconciled marriages. Key findings suggest outcomes are predicated on access to resources, as those with fewer financial and social resources have been more likely to stay, or attempt to stay, in a marriage following a separation (Morgan, 1988;Tumin et al., 2015;Wineberg & McCarthy, 1994). This may be especially salient among women, who tend to think less favorably about reconciliation (Bloom & Hodges, 1981) but who are more likely to experience financial hardship following a divorce (de Vaus, Gray, Qu, & Stanton, 2017). ...
... Popular sources promote ambiguous separations, sometimes calling them trial, controlled, or managed separations (e.g., Lipe, 2010;Raffel, 1999), to aid in decision-making about the future of a marriage. Researchers have commented on ambiguous separations (e.g., Tumin, Han, & Qian, 2015), but we could not locate any research on them. In fact, the empirical effects of ambiguous separation on families and its utility for marital decision-making are largely unknown. ...
... While this is curious given the sample's reported affluence, family stress, and coping researchers (e.g., Boss, 1992) hold that the perception of resources is often more pertinent in stress responses than the actual presence of resources. Furthermore, women are more likely to endure financial hardship following divorce (de Vaus et al., 2017), and previous separation research supports the notion that those with fewer financial and social resources are more likely to stay married or attempt reconciliation (Morgan, 1988;Tumin et al., 2015;Wineberg & McCarthy, 1994). It may be that the perception of constraints or expectation of hardship, financial or otherwise, motivates decisions to stay married. ...
Researchers have long treated marital separation as a linear transition that inevitably leads to divorce. Popular sources suggest that some couples separate without clarity about how the separation will end, often to assess whether to divorce or stay married. However, to date, we could not locate any empirical research on this kind of ambiguous separation. With a sample of 20 currently separated persons from around the United States, this study employed a hermeneutic phenomenological design to inquire about the experience of separating from one's spouse when the separation was initiated without clarity about how it would end. Six essential themes emerged: (a) our relationship feels ambiguous, (b) separation is a private experience, (c) separation is a lonely experience, (d) benefits to separating, (e) separation is not sustainable, and (f) the outcome is unclear. The article concludes with a discussion of and implications for the study findings.
... A separation does not always imply that a formal divorce is subsequently attained (Schaller, 2013;Tumin, Han, & Qian, 2015). After the initial separation, couples' continuing or new unemployment may pose a barrier to divorce. ...
... The phenomenon of separation without divorce (e.g., 9% of separated women not divorcing within 3 years of separation; Bramlett & Mosher, 2002) means that the decision to complete the divorce process after the couple has initially separated is theoretically significant in its own right (Schaller, 2013). Indeed, predictors of divorce initiation, such as low educational attainment, may not lead to divorce attainment after separation and may even be barriers to formal divorce after separation (Ono, 1995;Tumin et al., 2015). ...
... These figures exceed estimates of separation duration calculated from retrospective marital histories such as those included in the Survey of Income and Program Participation (Kreider & Ellis, 2011) or the National Survey of Family Growth (Copen, Daniels, Vespa, & Mosher, 2012). The discrepancy may be explained by differences in methodology between longitudinal and retrospective surveys collecting data on marital separation, such that very short separations are underrepresented in the NLSY79, leading to higher estimates of median separation length (Tumin et al., 2015). ...
Informal marital separation often quickly leads to divorce, but can become long-lasting, especially among disadvantaged populations. In this study, we focus on the timing of divorce after separating and examine how unemployment before or during separation affects this pivotal moment in the divorce process. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 Cohort (N = 2,219), we track unemployment before and during separation and show that men’s unemployment during separation, rather than women’s, reduces the likelihood of divorce, independent of preseparation unemployment and other characteristics. For men, unemployment during a marital separation prolongs the divorce process, creating an extended period of uncertainty in marital relationships on the brink of dissolution. We discuss the gendered relationship observed between employment status during an informal separation and an estranged couple’s decision to complete the divorce process.
... For example, when couples do not agree to get divorced legally in the United States, they live apart for some time to assess their separation. [6] In fact, separation is a warning for divorce and also a part of the divorce process. [6] In the past five to six decades, divorce rate has surged in a way that 50% of marriages in Norway and 50% of marriages in the United States have ended in divorce or separation. ...
... [6] In fact, separation is a warning for divorce and also a part of the divorce process. [6] In the past five to six decades, divorce rate has surged in a way that 50% of marriages in Norway and 50% of marriages in the United States have ended in divorce or separation. [7,8] Furthermore, marriage rate in Sweden has declined from 90% to 75% and from 1970 to 2010. ...
... A focus on short-term effects also reduces the likelihood that results are biased by race and gender differences in repartnering shortly after dissolution, and sample attrition. We define marital disruption as either a legal divorce or separation due to discord; economically disadvantaged persons tend to delay or forgo legal divorce due to the costly legal fees (McCarthy, 1978;Tumin et al., 2015). Overall, most disruptions are from first marriages (92%). ...
Gender differences in the economic consequences of divorce are well established and reveal how a traditional gender-based division of paid and unpaid labor can render women economically vulnerable when marriages dissolve. Guided by intersectional approaches that recognize systemic racism and entrenched gender inequality, we assess how race/ethnicity and gender intersect to pattern the economic consequences of divorce. Drawing on 28 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79), we conduct a descriptive analysis of the short-term economic impact of marital disruption for non-Hispanic Black women and men, Hispanic women and men, and non-Hispanic White women and men. Our bivariate and multivariable results indicate that the economic consequences of marital disruption vary substantially on the basis of race/ethnicity and gender. All groups of women fare worse than men in post-dissolution economic wellbeing and in changes in economic status. Black and Hispanic men and the three groups of women fare worse than White men, with Black women experiencing the highest levels of economic precarity.
... The year of marital dissolution is measured by year of divorce or separation, whichever came first. The two dates largely overlap in the sample, and replicating the analyses using divorce years shows similar results, despite slight changes in sample size (Tumin et al., 2015). Consistent with prior studies , the 15-years observation period is chosen to relieve the concern that a woman does not repartner merely due to a lack of time. ...
In the United States, high marital instability calls for more research on union transitions after marital dissolution. Previous studies focus on remarriage and pay little attention to rising post-dissolution cohabitation. In this study, I apply marital search theory to examine the level, pace, and differentials of repartnering (remarriage or cohabitation vs. staying single) and the exit from cohabitation (remarriage or dissolution vs. staying cohabiting). Adopting union history data from the pooled National Survey of Family Growth (2011–2017), I track union transitions among a sample of N = 2129 women. Analyses based on life tables and discrete-time event history analyses reveal important findings. First, most women repartner after marital dissolution. Compared to remarriage, cohabitation occurs more frequently and shows a quicker pace. Second, post-dissolution cohabitation is short-lived, and its transition to remarriage is more common than to dissolution. Third, these union transitions differ by demographic and socioeconomic predictors, including age, race and ethnicity, and education. Overall, I reveal that post-dissolution union transition is a divergent and unequal process, and I further discuss the implications on theory and family inequality.
... Divorce is a legal status, but there are varying lengths of time spent in a separated status. Tumin et al. (2015) found that 11% of separated individuals reconcile within five years, and 22% remain separated without a legal divorce five years after separation. Just as it is hard to capture relationship beginnings , it is challenging to measure the end of a relationship even when studying marriage. ...
The young adulthood years are demographically dense. Dr. Ronald Rindfuss made this claim when he was Population Association of America (PAA) president in 1991 (Rindfuss 1991), and this conclusion holds today. I offer both an update of his work by including Millennials and a new view on young adulthood by focusing on an increasingly common experience: cohabitation. I believe we need to move away from our marriage-centric lens of young adulthood and embrace the complexity that cohabitation offers. The cohabitation boom is continuing with no evidence of a slowdown. Young adults are experiencing complex relationship biographies, and social science research is struggling to keep pace. Increasingly, there is a decoupling of cohabitation and marriage, suggesting new ways of framing our understanding of relationships in young adulthood. As a field, we can do better to ensure that our theories, methods, and data collections better reflect the new relationship reality faced by young adults.
... For example, using Australian survey data, Hewitt, Western, and Baxter (2006) studied the profile of the partner within the couple who initiates separation and, drawing on the same source, Hewitt (2009) looked more specifically at the initiator of separation in couples with children finding that wives are less likely than husbands to initiate when they have infants. Tumin, Han, and Qian (2015) examined another dimension of separation by looking at marital separation separately from divorce. They viewed separation as a stage that may lead to either union dissolution or reconciliation and also showed that separations challenged survey research on the family. ...
Objective
This article examines situations where couples continue to live together under the same roof after deciding to separate.
Background
Separation is most often approached by researchers as a one‐off, clearly identifiable event. However, qualitative studies have shown that it is also a process and may include a period when the former partners continue to cohabit. This phenomenon is known as “Living Together Apart” (LTA).
Method
For the first time, data from the French survey of individual and conjugal trajectories (Etude des parcours individuels et conjugaux) conducted in 2013 and 2014 by the French Institute for Demographic Studies and the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies provide an opportunity to study LTA in quantitative terms. The survey was administered on a random representative sample drawn from the census and included a question module on separation arrangements. The authors' analysis is based mainly on logistic regressions to estimate the probability of having continued to live together and if so for how long.
Results
The article shows that LTA is frequent and correlated with various sociodemographic factors such as the presence of children, shared ownership of goods, type of union, and age at separation. The duration of LTA is not associated with these factors, however, except the presence of children, which increases it.
Conclusion
The main reasons for this living arrangement are linked to material constraints that oblige the expartners to share the same home and a desire to preserve the parental couple despite the breakdown of the conjugal couple.
... Divorces may drag on before they are finalized, for example, though we classified separated persons as divorced. In part, this is a philosophical question about the meaning of "divorce" that is beyond the scope of this study (though see Tumin et al. 2015). ...
The prevalence and incidence of divorce at older ages have doubled since 1990. We use Health and Retirement Study data to describe associations between divorce, remarriage and health in middle and later life, following individuals and couples through divorce and remarriage in models with individual or couple fixed effects. At middle and older ages, divorce is more often associated with adverse physical and mental health changes for women than for men. Remarriage is associated with a restoration of health and depression to pre-divorce levels for men and women. However, men are more likely to remarry. Evidence from couple models suggests that for husbands, but not wives, remarriage may be associated with less depression than the baseline marriage. Differences in self-reported health associated with divorce appear linked to (diagnosed) mental health conditions among wives and physical health conditions among husbands.
... Aunque los matrimonios pueden disolverse por separación o divorcio, las medidas de divorcio están mucho más formalizadas que las de separación. En gran parte, esto se debe a que las separaciones suelen no ser objeto de registro o lo son de manera menos sistemática que el divorcio, lo que hace difícil medirlas (Tumin, Han y Qian, 2015;Bramlett y Mosher, 2002). A ello se suma que la mayor parte de la investigación en esta área viene de Estados Unidos, donde las separaciones tienden a ser un fenómeno transitorio, que con relativa rapidez terminan en divorcio o reconciliación (Amato, 2010;Bramlett y Mosher, 2002). ...
Esta investigación utiliza datos longitudinales chilenos para construir un indicador del riesgo de disolución matrimonial y relacionar esa medida con predictores del divorcio. Usando una encuesta retrospectiva de 2015 (Familia como Recurso de la Sociedad, n=1 765) y aplicando técnicas de análisis de sobrevivencia, se estima un riesgo de disolución de 20% después de 20 años de matrimonio. El riesgo de disolución matrimonial se asocia de la manera esperada al nacimiento de hijos en común al matrimonio, la existencia de hijos de una unión previa de la pareja, la cohorte de nacimiento y el nivel socioeconómico de origen.
... Similarly, one quarter of mar- ried young adults reported reconciling after a separation (Binstock & Thorton, 2003). These rates of marital cycling tend to be lower in more age-representative samples (see Vennum et al., 2014), but about 12% of marital disruptions reported in the National Longitudinal Study of Youth, for example, were reconciled 3 years after separation (Tumin, Han, & Qian, 2015). ...
Objective
To examine the role of on–off relationship cycling in psychological distress for individuals in same‐ and different‐sex relationships.
Background
Relationship processes have a robust effect on individual well‐being, and dissolution is associated with psychological distress that is normative and typically short‐lived. A prolonged history of terminating a relationship and then reconciling (i.e., on–off cycling), however, may facilitate more pervasive symptomology. Moreover, researchers have indicated that instability is similar for individuals in same‐ and different‐sex relationships, but cycling in same‐sex relationships has yet to be studied despite existing disparities for sexual minorities.
Method
Data from 545 individuals in same‐sex (n = 279) and different‐sex (n = 266) relationships were used to assess the association between on–off cycling and symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Results
The occurrence of cycling was similar across relationship types, but a greater frequency emerged in male–male relationships compared with female–female and different‐sex relationships. Regardless of relationship type, we found a positive association between relationship cycling and distress while controlling for known correlates of mental health.
Conclusion
Patterns of breakup and renewal were linked to increased symptoms of psychological distress, indicating the accumulation of relationship transitions can create added turmoil for individuals.
Implications
Due to the potential distress associated with this relational pattern, practitioners should assess for on–off instability. We also provide suggestions for encouraging individuals in distressed on–off relationships to make informed decisions about stabilizing or safely terminating their partnerships.
... Our results agreed with the results of Musai and collegeues' study in Iran (13), Raymo et al in Japan (10), and Sayer et al in the United States (28). But one American study found that the rate of divorce after separation was higher among women who had higher degrees compared to those with lower degrees (14). ...
Objectives: One stage of divorce is emotional divorce, in which, couples live separately under the same roof. This situation seems to happen for most nurses, due to the job conditions, working long hours, stressful job and low salary, as well as the impact of workplace stress on marital relations. This article was intended to assess the rate of emotional divorce among nurses who worked in hospitals of Rasht, Iran. Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study, for which 382 nurses from hospitals of Rasht were selected by the way of quota and random sampling. The desired survey consisted of a 2-part questionnaire: demographic information, and Gottmann’s emotional divorce scale. Results were analyzed using SPSS software (version 19.0), and t test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and logistic regression were used. P < 0.05 and CI = 95% were considered significant. Results: The results showed that the participation rates for women and men were 93.5% and 6.5%, respectively. Moreover, the rate of emotional divorce among nurses who participated in this study was 7.6%. The main predictive variables for emotional divorce were living with spouse’s family, having relationship with family members, and attempt to divorce. Conclusions: Although the results suggested low rate of emotional divorce among nurses who lived in Rasht, it is recommended that appropriate ways be used for improving a life of greatness and emotional support of couples, and also improving the nurses’ quality services for calmness in married life, to decrease this low percentage with regard to the importance of this subject.
... A recent study suggested that differences in the wording of questions used to define the end of marriage may lead to different conclusions about demographic disparities in marital dissolution (Tumin et al. 2015). Add Health asked respondents to provide the end dates of their relationships, even if they had earlier reported that the relationship was current. ...
Most research on the stability of adult relationships has focused on coresidential (cohabiting or married) unions and estimates rates of dissolution for the period of coresidence. Studies examining how the stability of coresidential unions differs by sex composition have typically found that same-sex female couples have higher rates of dissolution than same-sex male couples and different-sex couples. We argue that the more elevated rates of dissolution for same-sex female couples are a by-product of the focus on coresidential unions. We use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health to compare rates of dissolution based on the total duration of romantic and sexual relationships for same-sex male couples, same-sex female couples, and different-sex couples. Results from hazard models that track the stability of young adult relationships from the time they are formed demonstrate that male couples have substantially higher dissolution rates than female couples and different-sex couples. Results based on models restricted to the period of coresidence corroborate the counterintuitive finding from earlier studies that female couples have the highest rates of dissolving coresidential unions. This study underlines the importance of comparisons between these couple types for a better understanding of the role that institutions and gender play in the stability of contemporary relationships.
Although associations between parental divorce before children reach age 18 and increased risk of depression are well documented, less is known about when parental divorce occurs when children are emerging adults. Our study examined how change in parental marital status during emerging adulthood (EA) was associated with depressive symptom trajectories from adolescence through EA. Data were drawn from 2600 emerging adults, ages 18–25, who participated in the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979. Findings from multi-group latent growth curve models suggested that depressive symptomology was higher at ages 18/19 and 20/21 when parental divorce occurred at 18/19 compared to those whose parents remained married. Additionally, we found no evidence of differences in the association between parental divorce and depressive symptoms between males and females. Given numerous negative consequences of depression, providing support to emerging adults who are experiencing their parents’ divorce is recommended, such as preventative interventions within colleges and non-college communities.
Objective
The growth in gray divorce raises new questions about the marital dissolution process experienced by older adults. Our goal was to assess patterns of reconciliation among couples following marital separation, treating forming a union with a new partner as a competing risk.
Background
Repartnering after a gray divorce is common, particularly among men. However, the extent to which older adults reconcile with their spouses is unknown. In line with the few prior studies on marital reconciliation among younger people, we anticipated that spouses with fewer resources and more marital‐specific capital would be more likely to reconcile.
Method
Using the 1998–2018 Health and Retirement Study, we tracked women and men who experienced a marital separation after age 50 to evaluate their propensities to reconcile with their spouse versus form a coresidential union (i.e., cohabitation or remarriage) with a new partner relative to remaining separated.
Results
Roughly 7% of women and 11% of men reconciled with their spouses, whereas 12% of women and 26% of men instead formed unions with a new partner within 10 years of marital separation. We expected that having fewer resources and greater relationship‐specific investments would encourage reconciliation, but results were mixed for women and men alike. Resources did tend to be positively associated with repartnering, particularly for men.
Conclusion
Our study contributes to the emerging research on repartnering after late‐life divorce as well as the limited literature on marital reconciliation by underscoring the utility of examining both reconciliation and repartnering as potential outcomes following marital separation.
In line with social exchange theory, the Big Five traits are hypothesized to affect marital stability. We performed a meta-analysis, which restricted the study selection to title searches and broad-scale Big Five trait effects. In total, 51 study effects were incorporated into the analysis (N = 25,153). The findings showed that neurotic, extraverted, and open individuals experience a higher risk of divorce, whereas conscientious individuals run less of a risk. However, the size of the personality effect was small for neuroticism and very small for the other three traits. No gender differences were detected, but measuring personality after divorce did appear to moderate the results. Although not directly tested, the findings of this research indicate that social exchange theory can successfully explain the predictive capability of the Big Five personality traits with regard to marital instability.
Cambridge Core - Social Psychology - On-Again, Off-Again Relationships - by René M. Dailey
Marital dissolution is the legal termination of marital obligations between spouses, and it has been perceived as a very common issue, especially when there are more challenges and expectations in one’s life. This article is a systematic review study, which explores the factors or driving forces that lead to marital dissolution. Besides that, the pattern of this study is derived from a combination of marital dissolution culture, factors of marital dissolution, perspectives, and information extracted from Asian countries. Electronic database was used to search appropriate reading materials and a total of 10 journals were found. This article presents a systematic review of 10 journals that are the results of some inclusion and exclusion criteria. The driving forces of marital dissolution such as domestic violence, cohabitation, interparental conflict, economic considerations, house holding, and separation across borders were discussed systematically.
Background:
People with disabilities are less likely to marry than people without disabilities. Trends in marriage and assortative mating among people with disabilities have not been investigated.
Hypothesis:
This study tested if marriage likelihood converged between adults with childhood-onset disabilities and their peers, and if married adults with childhood-onset disabilities became more likely to have a spouse without disabilities.
Methods:
U.S. data from annual National Health Interview Surveys were used to identify adults ages 18-44 surveyed between 1997 and 2013 (N = 562,229). Childhood-onset disability was defined by self-report of physical conditions limiting the respondent's activities since age <18 years. Weighted multivariate logistic regressions were used to compare trends in ever marrying and current marriage to a spouse without reported disabilities between adults with childhood-onset disabilities and adults without childhood-onset disabilities.
Results:
Across survey years, the decline in odds of having ever married was stronger among adults with childhood-onset disabilities (OR = 0.94; 95% CI: 0.93, 0.95; p < 0.001) than among adults without childhood-onset disabilities (OR = 0.96; 95% CI: 0.96, 0.96; p < 0.001), and divergence in these trends was statistically significant (p = 0.001). Employment and college attendance were positively correlated with marriage among people with childhood-onset disabilities. Among adults married at the time of the survey, those with childhood-onset disabilities were less likely to have a spouse without reported disabilities.
Conclusions:
The American retreat from marriage has been accelerated among adults with childhood-onset disabilities, with high rates of in-marriage to other people with disabilities persisting in this group.
In this paper the relationships between a disruption in parental co-habitation and various categories of adolescent outcomes over multiple time horizons are explored. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we estimated the effects of a change from living with both parents to just one, on academic and employment outcomes, the likelihood to indulge in risky behaviors, mental health outcomes and body mass index measures, from less than 1 year to over 14 years after the change. Propensity score matching methods were used to control for individual characteristics and pre-existing differences in the family environment that may increase the chances of separation, and the results are compared to those obtained using ordinary least squares or probit methods. Results showed evidence of adverse effects of living with one parent in the short term, medium term and long term. Adolescents living with one parent had lower academic achievement in all term lengths, poor mental health in the short to medium term, and were more likely to engage in risky behaviors in the medium to long term.
Given previous research on the risks associated with cycling in young adult dating relationships, the present study examines the frequency with which cyclical dating relationships (relationships that end and renew) persist into cohabitation and marriage, the characteristics of these relationships, and the constraints associated with cycling during these stages using a nationally representative sample of cohabiting (n = 323) and married (n = 752) couples. Using retrospective accounts, results suggest that over one-third of cohabiters and one-fifth of spouses have experienced a breakup and renewal in their current relationship. Additionally, partners who have experienced cycling are at greater risk for further cycling and experiencing greater constraints to permanently ending the relationship, greater uncertainty in their relationship’s future, and lower satisfaction.
This article argues that marriage has under- gone a process of deinstitutionalization—a weakening of the social norms that define part- ners' behavior—over the past few decades. Ex- amples are presented involving the increasing number and complexity of cohabiting unions and the emergence of same-sex marriage. Two transitions in the meaning of marriage that occurred in the United States during the 20th century have created the social context for deinstitutionalization. The first transition, noted by Ernest Burgess, was from the institutional marriage to the companionate marriage. The second transition was to the individualized mar- riage in which the emphasis on personal choice and self-development expanded. Although the practical importance of marriage has declined, its symbolic significance has remained high and may even have increased. It has become a marker of prestige and personal achievement. Examples of its symbolic significance are presented. The implications for the current state of marriage and its future direction are discussed. A quarter century ago, in an article entitled ''Remarriage as an Incomplete Institution'' (Cherlin, 1978), I argued that American society lacked norms about the way that members of stepfamilies should act toward each other. Par- ents and children in first marriages, in contrast, could rely on well-established norms, such as when it is appropriate to discipline a child. I predicted that, over time, as remarriage after divorce became common, norms would begin to emerge concerning proper behavior in step- families—for example, what kind of relationship a stepfather should have with his stepchildren. In other words, I expected that remarriage would become institutionalized, that it would become more like first marriage. But just the opposite has happened. Remarriage has not become more like first marriage; rather, first marriage has become more like remarriage. Instead of the institutionalization of remarriage,
Almost all our knowledge about cohabitation in the United States rests on analysis of nationally representative, large-scale surveys. We move beyond this work by drawing on 115 in-depth interviews with a sample of young men and women with recent cohabitation experience. These data allow us to address two issues of central interest to family studies. First, we use our qualitative data to assess the measurement of cohabitation in surveys and the census. We find that current measurement strategies are probably underestimating cohabitation, and we may need to find new ways to measure cohabitation. Second, we employ qualitative findings to address issues relating to how we empirically model union formation. We find that the movement into cohabitation is not akin to marriage. It is often not a deliberate decision. Couples do not appear to be deciding between cohabitation and marriage; rather, their decision seems to center around whether to remain single or cohabit. These results have important implications for our analysis and understanding of cohabitation.
We used data from the first wave of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to examine family boundary ambiguity in adolescent and mother reports of family structure and found that the greater the family complexity, the more likely adolescent and mother reports of family structure were discrepant. This boundary ambiguity in reporting was most pronounced for cohabiting stepfamilies. Among mothers who reported living with a cohabiting partner, only one-third of their teenage children also reported residing in a cohabiting stepfamily. Conversely, for those adolescents who reported their family structure as a cohabiting stepfamily, just two-thirds of their mothers agreed. Levels of agreement between adolescents and mothers about residing in a two-biological-parent family, single-mother family, or married stepfamily were considerably higher. Estimates of the distribution of adolescents across family structures vary according to whether adolescent, mother, or combined reports are used. Moreover the relationship between family structure and family processes differed depending on whose reports of family structure were used, and boundary ambiguity was associated with several key family processes. Family boundary ambiguity presents an important measurement challenge for family scholars.
Cycle 5 of the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) was conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) in 1995. The NSFG collects data on pregnancy, childbearing, and women's health from a national sample of women 15-44 years of age. This report describes how the sample was designed, shows response rates for various subgroups of women, describes how the sampling weights were computed to make national estimates possible, shows how missing data were imputed for a limited set of key variables, and describes the proper ways to estimate sampling errors from the NSFG. The report includes both nontechnical summaries for readers who need only general information and more technical detail for readers who need an in-depth understanding of these topics.
The 1995 NSFG was based on a national probability sample of women 15-44 years of age in the United States and was drawn from 14,000 households interviewed in the 1993 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). Of the 13,795 women eligible for the NSFG, 10,847 (79 percent) gave complete interviews.
This report recommends using weighted data for analysis and a software package that will estimate sampling errors from complex samples (for example, SUDAAN or comparable software). The rate of missing data in the 1995 NSFG was very low. However, missing data were imputed for 315 key variables, called "recodes." Of the 315 recodes defined for Cycle 5, 271 variables had missing data on less than 1 percent of the cases; only 44 had 1 percent or more with missing data. These missing values were imputed for all of these 315 variables. The imputation procedures are described in this report.
Using 1987-88 National Survey of Families and Household data, this study examines the prevalence of successful reconciliations among 506 white women in the United States. Approximately one-third of the women attempting a reconciliation are still married more than 1 year after the reconciliation began. The probability of having a successful reconciliation varies among subgroups of women. Religion has the strongest relationship with the success of a reconciliation, followed by premarital cohabitation, and age homogamy of the spouses. Other variables related to marital dissolution are not significantly associated with whether or not a reconciliation is successful: education, parity, age at separation, and duration between marriage and separation.
Studies of marital separation have often combined it with divorce or assumed that separation represents only a stepping stone to other marital statuses. This analysis examines three types of separation: those leading to divorce, those leading to reconciliation, and long-term unresolved separations. Demographic variables are used to predict which women, out of those reporting any period of separation during a 15-year longitudinal panel, move toward each outcome. Data from the NLS cohort of mature women from 1967-1982, analyzed with logit techniques, show important differences among these groups of separating women in education, income, and race.
Research on divorce during the past decade has focused on a range of topics, including the predictors of divorce, associations between divorce and the well-being of children and former spouses, and interventions for divorcing couples. Methodological advances during the past decade include a greater reliance on nationally representative longitudinal samples, genetically informed designs, and statistical models that control for time-invariant sources of unobserved heterogeneity. Emerging perspectives, such as a focus on the number of family transitions rather than on divorce as a single event, are promising. Nevertheless, gaps remain in the research literature, and the review concludes with suggestions for new studies.
We compare contemporaneous and retrospective reports of cohabitation among unmarried mothers in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing survey (N =2,524). We find that (a) many mothers revise their reports of whether they cohabited at the time of the birth of their child and (b) revisions in reports are systematically related to individuals’ characteristics and the quality and trajectory of parents’ relationships. These results have important implications for analyses of determinants and consequences of family structure using these data and, potentially, any retrospective data on relationships and family structure.
Using 1987-88 National Survey of Families and Household data, this study examines the process of separation and reconciliation in American marriages. For many couples, a period of separation and reconciliation has occurred in their current marriages and preceded divorce in earlier marriages. The temporary separations are not all short in duration; slightly more than one-quarter last over five months. Multiple reconciliations are quite common, as about one-third of the divorced women who attempted a reconciliation, had three or more temporary separations. Blacks are more likely to attempt a reconciliation and to have more than one temporary separation than whites. An analysis of the patterns of reconciliation by various sociodemographic variables show that education and age at first marriage are inversely associated with having had a reconciliation. The implications of these findings are discussed.
Using Hagestad and Smyer's (1982) and Bohannan's (1970) divorce theories as a framework to guide the research, the divorce experiences of five midlife women were investigated to understand (a) how midlife women adjust to marital dissolution, and (b) how recently divorced midlife women negotiate the transition to singlehood. In-depth interviews revealed that midlife divorce is a complicated process consisting of multiple ceasings and new beginnings that take place over an extended period of time. Results supported that a divorce model hinging on the emotional and psychological aspects of divorce may be appropriate for understanding women's midlife divorce. Analyses of the interviews suggested a link between an orderly pattern of divorce according to Hagestad and Smyer's model and the successful transition through all of Bohannan's six stations of divorce.
Using data from a panel study of White young adults containing complete marital and cohabiting union histories from age 15 through 31, our goal is to track and compare the paths along which young adults arrange and time the entries and exits from marital and cohabiting unions. We focus on the incidence, duration, and outcomes of 2 dimensions that embrace residential separation: (a) separations that relate to discord in the relationship and (b) living apart from the partner or spouse for reasons other than discord. Our results show that union trajectories are dynamic and involve a heterogeneous and multidirectional array of transitions. We also find consistent differences supporting the idea that marital unions are more stable and durable than cohabiting unions.
The impact of involuntary job displacements on the probability of divorce is analysed using discrete duration models. The
analysis uses the sample of couples from the British Household Panel Survey and distinguishes between types of displacements.
Results show that couples in which the husband experiences a job loss are more likely to divorce. Redundancies have small,
positive, often insignificant and short-lived effects while dismissals and temporary job endings have larger positive impacts.
This is consistent with the interpretation of redundancies as capturing negative income shocks while other types of job loss
also convey new information about potential future earnings and match quality.
KeywordsJob loss–Divorce–Marriage duration
This study, using 1987–88 National Survey of Families and Households data, has examined the prevalence and characteristics of ever-separated white women who attempt a marital reconciliation. Marital reconciliations are quite common as 44% of the separated women attempt a reconciliation. There is some support for the thesis that those with the fewest resources and greatest reliance on the relationship are the most likely to attempt a reconciliation. In comparing these findings with previous research on the marital dissolution process, there is little consistency in the relationship that the sociodemographic variables have with attempting a reconciliation and with the success of an attempted reconciliation. The implications of these findings are discussed.
Demographic trends in the 2000s showed the continuing separation of family and household due to factors such as childbearing among single parents, the dissolution of cohabiting unions, divorce, repartnering, and remarriage. The transnational families of many immigrants also displayed this separation, as families extended across borders. In addition, demographers demonstrated during the decade that trends such as marriage and divorce were diverging according to education. Moreover, demographic trends in the age structure of the population showed that a large increase in the elderly population will occur in the 2010s. Overall, demographic trends produced an increased complexity of family life and a more ambiguous and fluid set of categories than demographers are accustomed to measuring.
Researchers continue to question fathers' willingness to report their biological children in surveys and the ability of surveys to adequately represent fathers. To address these concerns, this study evaluates the quality of men's fertility data in the 1979 and 1997 cohorts of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79 and NLSY97) and in the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG). Comparing fertility rates in each survey with population rates based on data from Vital Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau, we document how the incomplete reporting of births in different surveys varies according to men's characteristics, including their age, race, marital status, and birth cohort. In addition, we use Monte Carlo simulations based on the NSFG data to demonstrate how birth underreporting biases associations between early parenthood and its antecedents. We find that in the NSFG, roughly four out of five early births were reported; but in the NLSY79 and NLSY97, almost nine-tenths of early births were reported. In all three surveys, incomplete reporting was especially pronounced for nonmarital births. Our results suggest that the quality of male fertility data is strongly linked to survey design and that it has implications for models of early male fertility.
The National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) collects data on pregnancy, childbearing, men's and women's health, and parenting from a national sample of women and men 15-44 years of age in the United States. This report describes the sample design for the NSFG's new continuous design and the effects of that design on weighting and variance estimation procedures. A working knowledge of this information is important for researchers who wish to use the data. Two data files are being released--the first covering 2.5 years (30 months) of data collection and the second after all data have been collected. This report is being released with the first data file. A later report in this Series will include specific results of the weighting, imputation, and variance estimation.
The NSFG's new design is based on an independent, national probability sample of women and men 15-44 years of age. Fieldwork was carried out by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research (ISR) under a contract with the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). In-person, face-to-face interviews were conducted by professional female interviewers using laptop computers.
Analysis of NSFG data requires the use of sampling weights and estimation of sampling errors that account for the complex sample design and estimation features of the survey. Sampling weights are provided on the data files. The rate of missing data in the survey is generally low. However, missing data were imputed for about 600 key variables (called "recodes") that are used for most analyses of the survey. Imputation was accomplished using a multiple regression procedure with software called IVEware, available from the University of Michigan website.
There is considerable disagreement about whether cohabitors are more or less likely to be educationally homogamous than married couples. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, I reconcile many of the disparate findings of previous research by conducting a "stock and flow" analysis of assortative cohabitation and marriage. I find that cohabitors are less likely to be educationally homogamous than married couples overall, but these differences are not apparent when cohabiting and marital unions begin. Instead, the results suggest that differences in educational homogamy by union type are driven by selective exits from marriage and cohabitation rather than by differences in partner choice. Marriages that cross educational boundaries are particularly likely to end. The findings suggest that although cohabitors place greater emphasis on egalitarianism than married couples, this does not translate into greater educational homogamy. The findings are also consistent with a large body of research on cohabitation and divorce questioning the effectiveness of cohabitation as a trial marriage.
Premarital cohabitation has been found to be positively correlated with the likelihood of marital dissolution in the United States. To reassess this link, I estimate proportional hazard models of marital dissolution for first marriages by using pooled data from the 1988, 1995, and 2002 surveys of the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG). These results suggest that the positive relationship between premarital cohabitation and marital instability has weakened for more recent birth and marriage cohorts. Using multiple marital outcomes for a person to account for one source of unobserved heterogeneity, panel models suggest that cohabitation is not selective of individuals with higher risk of marital dissolution and may be a stabilizing factor for higher-order marriages. Further research with more recent data is needed to assess whether these results are statistical artifacts caused by data weaknesses in the NSFG.
This paper uses the 1995 and 2002 waves of the National Survey of Family Growth to examine recent trends in cohabitation in the United States. We find increases in both the prevalence and duration of unmarried cohabitation. Cohabitation continues to transform children’s family lives, as children are increasingly likely to be born to a cohabiting mother (18% during 1997-2001) or to experience their mother’s entry into a cohabiting union. Consequently, we estimate that two-fifths of all children spend some time in a cohabiting family by age 12. Because of substantial missing data in the 2002 NSFG, we are unable to produce new estimates of divorce and children’s time in single-parent families. Nonetheless, our results point to the steady growth of cohabitation and to the evolving role of cohabitation in U.S. family life.
This study examines early adjustment to marital separation as a function of sex and parent status in a sample of 153 persons separated an average of eight weeks from their spouses because of marital discord. Men were much more satisfied with the quality of their marriages prior to separation and much more opposed to its ending than were women. Women consistently reported more gains than men as a consequence of their separations and a greater readiness to divorce. Social support systems were stronger in the case of women than men and in the case of parents than nonparents. Formal and informal helpseeking was very common. There was considerable difficulty in the areas of job performance and career planning, and the presence of children appeared to add to the difficulties faced by divorcing parents. In general, while the preseparation period appeared to be more stressful for women, the early postseparation period was far more difficult for men.
The purpose of this study was to provide a qualitative description of women's experiences of divorcing and building a new life, Interviews with 10 divorced women were conducted, transcribed, and analyzed using the constant comparative method, Four phases were identified in the process of divorcing and building a new life: the emotional divorce, making the decision, pulling apart, and moving beyond. Feelings and coping strategies reported by the participants are described. Copyright (C) 1997 by W.B. Saunders Company.
Researchers have concluded that divorced persons often fail to report accurate marital information in surveys. I revisit this issue using surveys matched exactly to Social Security data. Older divorced persons frequently misreport their marital status, but there is evidence that the misreporting is unintentional. I offer some suggestions on how surveys can be improved.
This report presents national estimates of the probabilities of marital and cohabitation outcomes for women 15-44 years of age in 1995, by a wide variety of individual- and community-level characteristics. The life-table analysis in this report takes a life cycle approach to estimate the probabilities that: a woman will marry for the first time, an intact first cohabitation will make the transition to marriage, a first cohabitation will end in separation, a first marriage will end in separation or divorce, a disrupted first marriage will be followed by a new cohabitation, a separation from first marriage will result in divorce, a divorce from first marriage will be followed by remarriage, and a second marriage will end in separation or divorce.
The life-table estimates presented here are based on a nationally representative sample of women 15-44 years of age in the United States in 1995 from the National Survey of Family Growth, Cycle 5.
The analyses show that various individual and community-level characteristics are related to the marital and cohabitational outcomes examined in this report. The results consistently demonstrate that the cohabitations and marriages of non-Hispanic black women are less stable than those of non-Hispanic white women. An analysis of trends over time suggests that differences by race/ethnicity are becoming more pronounced in recent years. Racial differences observed are associated with individual characteristics and with the characteristics of the communities in which the women live.
Measuring separation and divorce
- Bumpass
Expanding on explanations of recent patterns in U.S. divorce rates
- H. Ono
Individuals and families in transition: Understanding change through longitudinal data
- L. A. Lillard
- L. J. Waite