This article looks at the way that no fault divorce has changed the fundamentals of the American family and in particular its impact on children. Both essay and review article, he cites authors and marriage scholars to give a useful summary of the history and impact of divorce on the US.
The article discusses the negative impact divorce has on children’s health and academic achievement, teenage pregnancy, incarceration, and reduced well-being. He also notes that while some divorces that end a high conflict marriage could be argued as being good for kids, >2/3 of divorces are not of this type and are simply due to parents ‘drifting apart’ and he states that ‘Unfortunately, these are the divorces that are most likely to be stressful for children’.
Also discussed is the rise in cohabitation ( a 14X increase), as is the fact that children from divorced families are more 47% more likely to cohabit and 89% more to divorce themselves compared to adults raised in intact married families
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