The social and demographic correlates of divorce in rural Bangladesh

"This article examines the rate of divorce by age, sex and duration of marital life at the time of divorce in rural Bangladesh for a period of 18 years from 1975 to 1992. An attempt has also been made to investigate the extent to which the incidence of divorce changes with the various socio-economic and demographic characteristics. The overall divorce rates per thousand married males and females declined from 16.1 to 11.5 and 11.8 to 8.4, respectively, during the study periods 1975-1979 and 1989-1992."

Changes in the divorce rate and age distribution in China since the 1980s

"The divorce rate in China during the 1980s was much higher than before for a number of reasons. In order to understand this phenomenon, the authors will make a comparison between the divorce rates, and the age and duration of the marriage at the time of divorce in the early 1980s and in the late 1980s and early 1990s."

[The impact of parental divorce on the relationships of young adults]

"The 1993 Netherlands Fertility and Family Survey shows that parental divorce has an impact on (the attitudes towards) relationships of young adults. Children of divorced parents leave home at an earlier age and have a stronger preference for cohabitation. Once a relationship (cohabitation or marriage) has started, it is more likely to end in separation or divorce." (SUMMARY IN ENG)

Does the income tax affect marital decisions?

"This paper discusses new empirical evidence on the role of income tax incentives in marital decisions [in the United States]. Time-series evidence suggests that taxes have a small but statistically significant effect on the aggregate marriage rate; however, this evidence is sensitive to the time period and the measure of marriage. Additional evidence, based on household longitudinal data, indicates that the probability of marriage falls and that of divorce rises with an increase in the so-called marriage tax, and that the timing of marriage (though not of divorce) is also affected by taxes. In short, there is strong evidence that taxes affect some marital decisions."

Divorce-risk trends in Sweden 1971-1993

"The purpose of this paper is to introduce an updated system of annual indexes of divorce risks and to use the system to display trends in divorce risks for Swedish women over the years since 1971. Divorce-risk trends turn out to have been quite different for women at different parities. Trends for women in their first marriage (the majority) are also somewhat different from trends in later marriages. After a spurt in divorces at parity 0 connected with a divorce reform in 1974, divorce risks have been quite stable for women at this parity, but they have increased steadily among married mothers, mostly as an effect of an increasing prevalence of premarital childbearing. Our indexes are produced by an indirect standardization of register data with respect to women's age at marriage, duration of marriage, and order of marriage. We also recommend standardization with respect to an indicator of premarital childbearing, which is particularly important in a population with extensive nonmarital cohabitation." (SUMMARY IN FRE)

Do you need to shop around? Age at marriage, spousal alternatives, and marital dissolution

"This article attempts to shed light on the oft-observed relationship between age at marriage and marital dissolution by first deriving a hypothesis from marital search theory that relates both variables to the supply of spousal alternatives in the local marriage market. This hypothesis states that, relative to people who marry later in life, persons who marry at comparatively young ages will be especially susceptible to divorce when confronted with abundant alternatives to their current spouse. Marital history data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth were then merged with aggregated data from the Public Use Microdata Samples of the 1980 U.S. census to test this hypothesis." The author finds that "discrete-time event history analyses offer no support for this hypothesis. Although the risk of marital dissolution is highest where either husbands or wives chance numerous spousal alternatives, the impact of age at marriage on divorce is significantly weaker in marriage markets containing abundant remarriage opportunities. Some of the effect of age at marriage on marital dissolution is attributable to the detrimental impact of early marriage on educational attainment."

Premarital cohabitation and postmarital cohabiting union formation

"Previous research has indicated that premarital cohabitation decreases marital stability. This study examined the role of premarital cohabitation as a determinant of cohabitation after marital disruption. The author proposed that people who cohabited with their first spouse prior to marriage have a greater propensity to cohabit after marital disruption than people who did not cohabit before their first marriage. Event history analysis of the postmarital union experiences of women and men from the Canadian 1990 Family and Friends Survey (FFS) supports this proposition. It was found that the hazard rate of postmarital cohabitation was over 50% higher for premarital cohabitants than for noncohabitants."

A review of economic research into determinants of divorce

"This paper reviews econometric work on the determinants of divorce. There is a fair degree of agreement over some of the key variables. It seems well-established that the effect of male wage rates is negative while the effect of female wage rates is positive. Nonetheless, controversy still rages over the effect of legal changes. Further work is needed on this. Viewed as a scientific research programme, the study of the determinants of divorce needs access to a wider range of populations. The databases at present are primarily U.S. sample surveys."

Entry to lone parenthood: an analysis of marital dissolution in Great Britain

"This paper examines some...socio-economic determinants of lone parenthood in Great Britain, in an attempt to understand further the reasons behind the rapid growth in lone parenthood. Since divorce and separation are the major 'causes' of lone parenthood, this paper focuses on the determinants of marital dissolution among women with dependent children. The empirical analysis is guided by hypotheses suggested by the 'economic theory of marriage'. Hazard regression equations are estimated with data collected in the 1980 Women and Employment Survey...." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND ITA)

Race differences in changing family demographics in the 1980s

Traditional demarcators of family formation and dissolution have changed dramatically over the past few decades and Black-White differences have become pronounced. In this article, we explore the degree to which a relatively small set of variables can account for racial difference in timing of initiation of sexual activity, first marriage, first birth, and divorce. The independent variables included in the model are adolescent living arrangements (single-parent vs. two-parent), mother's educational level, religion, region of the country, area of residency (urban, suburban, rural), birth cohort, and year of the survey. Based on hazard models for the rate of occurrence of each event, we estimate how Blacks would differ if they had mean values on covariates equal to White observed means. Although the results differ for the four dependent variables, this particular set of independent variables does not provide a satisfactory explanation of the differences between Black and White family formation and dissolution. Blacks and Whites may be responding to different structural and cultural constraints not easily captured by basic demographic variables.

Divorce in the family life cycle

"We present the results of [a] study conducted in the years 1986-1988 in three big cities in Poland.... The sample population consisted of persons who divorced in the years 1983-1984....[The focus is on] a detailed evaluation of the sources of divorce and a discussion of the determinants, in relation to the family life cycle. The paper constitutes an attempt at an interdisciplinary approach to the phenomenon of divorce; the approach combines demographic and sociological perspectives."

Marital instability in a rural population in south-west Uganda: implications for the spread of HIV-1 infection

"The aim of this study was to examine people's beliefs about the causes of marital instability in a rural population cohort in south-west Uganda. Results from a baseline survey of HIV-1 infection in the cohort of over 4,000 adults (over 12 years old) showed a twofold increase in risk of infection in divorced or separated persons when compared with those who are married. A purposive sample of 134 respondents (seventy-two males, sixty-two females) selected to represent different ages, religions and marital status were asked in semi-structured interviews to comment on the reasons for continuing marital instability in their community. The most common reasons suggested for marital instability were sexual dissatisfaction, infertility, alcoholism and mobility....HIV infection was not mentioned as a direct cause of separation, but a small independent study revealed that seven out of ten couples separated on learning of a positive HIV test result of one or both partners. Marital instability is not uncommon in this population; there is evidence that HIV infection is making the situation worse." (SUMMARY IN FRE)

[Which women experience divorce?]

"This study reports on the determinants of divorce of married Dutch women, born between 1950 and 1969.... The impact of several factors on the divorce process is examined.... The analyses show that the women who have the highest divorce rates grew up in a big city, cohabited before marriage (and are or were religious), married before age 21 in the period 1980-88 and had a child before, or within six months after, the wedding. On the basis of these results, it is estimated that 20% will experience divorce within the first five years of their marriage. The data for the analyses have been derived from The Netherlands Fertility Survey (1988)...." (SUMMARY IN ENG)

Starting over. Why remarriages are more unstable

Using interview data from a national sample of married persons, the extent to which people in remarriages have attributes that adversely influence marital quality and stability is examined. Five models linking remarriage-induced attributes to an increased probability of a decline in marital quality and divorce are evaluated. Persons in remarriages are more likely to be poorly integrated with parents and in-laws, willing to leave the marriage, be poor marriage material, and to have lower socioeconomic status and age-heterogeneous marriages. All but socioeconomic status are found to explain declines in marital quality and higher levels of marital instability. Together the remaining four models explain major portions of the remarriage/marital-quality and remarriage/divorce relationships.

Divorce in contemporary Japan

Data from the 1985-86 Japanese census are analysed to explore the determinants of the divorce rates in Japan's forty-seven prefectures, using two theoretical models: (a) the social integration model, which is shown to have a greater utility in predicting Japanese divorce levels than (b), the human capital model. Female emigration patterns play a significant role in affecting the divorce rate. Population increase and net household income are also important predictors of the Japanese divorce rate and urbanization has a great influence in modern Japan. Demographic and aggregate variables such as migration, urbanization, and socioeconomic factors are useful when organized under a social integration model.

Economic dependency and divorce: implications for the private sphere

"This paper asserts a connection between economic dependency and divorce. It argues that, because dependency deprives women of equal access to the public sphere and because it confines them, through normative definition, to the private sphere, it reduces their likelihood of seeking divorce. The paper also argues, contrary to recent findings, that socioeconomic development should be linearly and positively associated with divorce. Data from 51 nations are examined and multiple regression analysis [suggests] considerable support for these arguments."

Socio-demographic correlates of divorce in New Zealand

"This paper links data obtained from a one-in-five systematic sample of New Zealand divorce files covering the period 1940-78 with published marriage and birth statistics to examine socio-demographic differentials in divorce rates among couples married between 1939 and 1973. Differentials investigated are those by age at marriage, relative age of bride and groom, marital status prior to marriage, relative marital status of bride and groom, pregnancy status of the wife at marriage, timing of the first birth, religion, country of birth and socioeconomic status. Several findings of overseas studies, such as the special proneness to divorce of very youthful marriages and remarriages following previous divorces, are verified for New Zealand. After controlling for age at marriage, pregnancy does not seem to have directly increased the risk of divorce."

Socio-economic determinants of divorce in Bangladesh

"This study examines the divorce pattern of Bangladesh with a set of socio-economic factors: education, religion, current residence, childhood residence, work status before and after marriage and age at first marriage. The source of data was ever-married women aged 15-49 of 1975 Bangladesh Fertility Survey. Multiple classification analysis technique was used for analyzing the data.... Divorce is found to have a strong inverse relation with age at marriage, and is more common among illiterates, Muslims, and rural women. The duration of marriage before divorce is found to be very low and the divorce rate is strongly associated with childlessness."