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Unilateral Divorce Harms Children?

http://www.ncpa.org/iss/soc/pd110501f.html

NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS
Monday, November 05, 2001
Daily Policy Digest -- Social Issues

Does Unilateral Divorce Harm Children?

Historically, states only provided for divorce on grounds such as
infidelity and physical abuse, and when it was mutually agreed upon by
both partners. Now most U.S. states allow for unilateral no-fault divorce,
whereby one spouse can obtain a divorce without the consent of his or her
partner, solely on the grounds of spousal incompatibility.

Are these new laws making divorce too easy? A number of states are
considering changing their divorce laws, primarily motivated by the
perceived negative impact of divorce on children.

In his study, "Is Making Divorce Easier Bad for Children? The Long Run
Implications of Unilateral Divorce," Jonathan Gruber determined that
children who grew up in the "easier-divorce" states are in fact worse off
in a number of ways.

* They are less well educated, with a particularly large increase in their
   odds of being a high school dropout or graduate as opposed to going
   on to attend or complete college.

* They also live in families with lower incomes -- primarily because these
   families involve earlier marriage, having more children, and an increased
   tendency for the women to not work for pay but rather to be home with
   their children.

* They are more likely to marry early, but these early marriages are also
   more likely to end in separation.

Gruber also determined that since the 1960s and early 1970s, when "no
fault divorces" became available, unilateral divorce regulations have
significantly increased the odds of an adult being divorced (by 11.6
percent) and of a child living with a divorce parent: children were 14.5
percent more likely than under the old laws to be living with a divorced
mother and 11.1 percent more likely to be living with a divorced father.

Source: David R. Francis, "Is Making Divorce Easier Bad for Children?"
NBER Digest, February 2001; based on Jonathan Gruber, "Is Making Divorce
Easier Bad for Children? The Long Run Implications of Unilateral Divorce,"
NBER Working Paper No. 7968, October 2000, National Bureau of Economic
Research.

For NBER Digest
http://www.nber.org/digest/feb01/w7968.html

For Working Paper
http://papers.nber.org/papers/w7968

For more on Social Issues
http://www.ncpa.org/iss/soc/

Copyright © 2001 National Center for Policy Analysis - All rights reserved.
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