Divorce : A Serious Epidemic

Divorce is one of life’s most stressful experiences. Everyone involved has a unique experience with divorce. I interviewed a sixty year old female, Sandra, who has been divorced from Randy for almost five years. They were married for thirty-six years and have two children, Mandy and Mark. Mandy is married to my uncle, so I was not interviewing a complete stranger. Sandra was very willing to talk to me about her divorce. While they did not go to premarital counseling, have a premarital pregnancy, or cohabitate, there were risk factors. After dating just three months, they married when she was nineteen and he was twenty-two. Early marriage is noted to be “the most adverse demographic risk for marital instability” (Hetherington, 2003, p.328). I will discuss the interview and my thoughts on her divorce based on Bohannan’s six stages of divorce.

The United States of America is the land of the free and the home of the brave; however, it can also be called the country that holds the highest divorce rates. America’s divorce rate in 2010 was at forty one percent and is still currently growing (Divorce Rates by Country). Forty percent of these divorces had children involved (Divorce Rates in America). With such shocking statistics, it is easy to see that America’s divorce system is in dire need of change. Since divorce can ruin families, harm a child’s all around well-being, and holds the potential of being prevented, there should be more strict regulations to receive a divorce and a stronger push for covenant marriages.

As generations pass by, divorce is becoming more of a social norm than a problem between two individuals. Divorce once was a private household issue but it became widespread only a couple of decades ago. According to the statistics, in the 1950s only 3% of families got divorced and in the 1960s it was already 10%. In the 1980s, 33% of families opted for divorce due to various environmental factors. Recent studies in Canada today, show that the rate of divorce is changing to an extent such that 4 in 10 marriages end in separation. Divorce is a sensitive concept which lies beyond two individuals simply falling out of love as is both the cause and an effect. The many factors that contribute to divorce are extramarital affairs, financial struggles, and the lack of communication.

Throughout time, practices that were once never used, become more common. In the 1600s divorce was a forbidden practice or a last resort. Since then, laws have changed, and so hasn’t the stigma related with divorce. The guilt and fault that divorce once carried has vanished. According to the book Should I Keep Trying to Work it out, “In the United States, researchers estimate that 40%–50% of all first marriages will end in divorce or permanent separation. The risk of divorce is even higher for second marriages, about 60%.” (Hawkins 42). As it became more common for couples in America to separate, divorce gradually became a normal part of so many lives. Why are so many couples separating now? Through research on EBSCO, and other findings, I will attempt to explain this question that so many people ask in today’s world. The divorce rate in America is drastically increasing over time due to new laws, certain generations, and relationship issues.

The rapid epidemic of divorce in the United States within the last 20 years has affected more than one half of the families in the United States. In the past, we have viewed divorce as a short term crisis and not as a longitudinal view of the effects divorce might bring. Divorce does affect children. However, it is not the divorce that is the problem; it is the ongoing conflict between the parents and the child’s coping mechanisms in their own stages of development. Counseling, family therapy, and also having a divorce mediation are all successful ways of coping with the family.

With a major upsurge of divorces beginning in the forties, experts argue that divorce was and still remains a social problem. From a religious perspective, historically theologians and moralists have disapproved of divorce and decreed divorce as a dysfunctional and disruptive of the stability of society , the family and the welfare of children and the well being of adults. In addition, sociologists imply that divorce is undesirable and promote familial disorganization. The increase of divorce has threatened the normativity of intact families, thus divorce defies the desirable family structure. Psychologists, including children psychologists and social workers emphasized several deleterious consequences of divorce in terms of the

The Smith family is African American that lives in Saint Louis, Missouri. The family consists of two middle-aged parents having two daughters. The daughters’ names are Aliyah and Sarah. Sarah, the oldest is in eighth grade, and attends a very good middle school. Aliyah the youngest, attends the fourth grade at a good elementary school. . In this household both parents work. The mother is a nurse at Barnes hospital, while the father is a computer technician at a company. After many issues the parents eventually divorced about three years back. The father re-married last year to a young woman that has a four-year-old son. Overall, the family social-economic developments are that they are very well off living in a safe suburban neighborhood.

Marriage is the Glue of Society Millions of Americans find out the hardships a divorce brings each year. Although many couples know it can be a long hard road, many still decide it is the best option. In her book “The Case against Divorce” 1989, Diane Medved confesses, “Quite simply, I discovered in my research that the process and aftermath of divorce is so pervasively disastrous-to body, mind, and spirit- that in an overwhelming number of cases, the “cure” that it brings is surely worse than marriages “disease” (664). After a lot of heartache and personal experiences, many newly single people are forming a very similar opinion. It is usually better for a person to try to save their marriage rather than getting a divorce because it is damaging

In today’s society it seems that divorce is as common as marriage. Statistics have shown that 50% of all marriages will end in divorce. In looking at the information available I decided to look at common causes of divorce and look how each one affects the marriage and creates dissension and animosity in the relationship.

In our culture today most people accept divorce as a way of life. We see love as a cure to everything and something hate and revenge. Our movies and our stories and our history all celebrate it as life’s ultimate goal, the final solution for all of our pain and struggle. Writer/producer Alvarez Rafael wrote an article  “The changing face of the American family: A conversation with John Hopkin University (JHU) sociologist Andrew Cherlin explained how marriage shaped life in America's cities and culture. In fact (Alvarez, 2016) discover this “Marriage used to be the only path to adulthood for Americans. Now there are multiple paths. You can live with somebody and have a child with them. You can have a series of relationships or remain single

Those factors affect the effectiveness of strong roots of social institution which maintain social stability4 . Because we are talking about a larger scale problem (sociological imagination) functionalists in a macro-sociological aspect would blame divorce on the lack of solid social institutions which leads to divorce. Individuals are made to socialize in order to perform their societal function, which is the function of marriage which is the founding of a society. Divorce which is a social problem reflect the fact that the roots of the education of marriage is weak and collectively the choice we make as a society affects the way we view marriage . In order to reinforce my statement any form of society has different actors that influence the society the government, a religious ideology and family. In this case, family is the highest branch of a social institution that can be affected by divorce. The stability of a family contributes to a social order where the offspring of a married couple is more likely to behave better in the large scale of the society. First , women are the first affected by divorce they are more likely so suffer emotionally

¨In America, there is one divorce approximately every 36 seconds. That’s nearly 2,400 divorces per day, 16,800 divorces per week, and 876,000 divorces per year¨ (Irvin 1). Millennials are more likely to have a divorce than previous generations. 36.6% of women and 38.8% of men aging from twenty to twenty-four end their marriage in divorce, but only 5.1% of women and 6.5% of men aging from thirty-five to thirty-nine end their marriage in divorce. The divorce rate is significantly higher the younger the married couple is. Pop Culture can play a significant role in this. Britney Spears and Jason Alexander were only married for fifty-five hours (Irvin 2)! Last year, Angelina Jolie announced that she filed for a divorce from Brad Pitt. Most children look up to these celebrities as role models. If their role models divorce and remarry every other year, the next generations will feel that divorce is acceptable. Not only are celebrities influencing Millennials to divorce but also other factors such as women in the workforce, domestic violence, and a secular society.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2011 there were 2,118,000 marriages in the United States and almost half as many divorces (2013). The CDC also reports that only half of all first marriages will reach their twentieth anniversary. Divorce is a topic everyone is familiar with and it has almost become a normal part of life. While it is assumed that more divorces occur now than in the previous generation, the CDC actually reports that divorce rates have dropped over the past twenty to thirty years, though this could be due to the increase in individuals who live together without ever getting married or those who simply separate and cannot afford to become legally divorced. However, it has become a more

People in America are determined to get married and live together. Married couples want to share everything and depend on each other. However, fifty percent of these couples cannot seem to fulfill their marriage vows. As a result, they choose to get a divorce. Divorce is very easy to do nowadays unlike the past. Statistics show that the four main causes of divorce are: financial difficulty, women are more independent, infidelity, and couples are getting married at a young age.

The sanctity of marriage has seemed to have disappeared with the arrival of the 21st century. Though marriage rates have always fluctuated in the past, current events have caused divorce rates to increase. According to recent statistics made by the census bureau, the divorce rate in America is roughly 50 percent. There are a myriad of speculations as to why more people are not staying together. One reason is that people are getting married for the wrong reasons, such as unplanned pregnancies. Another reason is that women have become more independent so that they are not forced in to being in a marriage where they are not happy. Last, lenient divorce laws make it much easier for many couples to get divorced. Combined, these three