Effects of Religiosity,Forgiveness, and Spousal Empathy on Marital Adjustment

This study focused on married couples in a region of the United States that previous research has identified as having high rates of both religiosity and divorce. As a result, this study was designed to examine the effects of religiosity, forgiveness, and spousal empathy on marital adjustment. To investigate these constructs, married couples in this region were recruited (n?=?829) to participate in a cross-sectional, self-report telephone survey. Results indicate that religious service attendance and spousal empathy have direct positive effects on marital adjustment in European American married men; while religious service attendance, forgiveness, and spousal empathy have direct positive effects on marital adjustment in European American married women. Among African-American participants, only spousal empathy had a direct effect on marital adjustment for both men and women. Finally, spousal empathy moderated the association between previous marriage and current marital adjustment among European American married women.     

Divorce and the Divine: The Role of Spirituality in Adjustment to Divorce

This study examined the role of three spiritual responses to divorce for psychological adjustment: appraising the event as a sacred loss/desecration, engaging in adaptive spiritual coping, and experiencing spiritual struggles. A sample of 100 adults (55% female) was recruited through public divorce records. Most appraised their divorce as a sacred loss/desecration (74%), experienced spiritual struggles (78%), and engaged in adaptive spiritual coping (88%). Appraisals of sacred loss/desecration and spiritual struggles were tied to higher levels of depression. Adaptive spiritual coping was tied to greater posttraumatic growth. Spiritual coping and struggles each contributed uniquely to adjustment beyond parallel forms of nonspiritual coping and struggles and mediated links between viewing the divorce as a sacred loss/desecration and depression.     

Breaking Up,Breaking Hearts? Characteristics of the Divorce Process and Well-Being After Divorce

This article expands existing research on divorce and mental health by considering the divorce process and how it relates to the postdivorce well-being of men and women. Drawing on gender role theories, we focus on conflict, duration of the divorce process, initiation, moving house, and feelings of (in)equity. Men and women aged 25 to 60 years who had divorced no more than 5 years were selected from the population-based survey Divorce in Flanders (DIF; N _sample = 728). Results of the multilevel regressions indicate that initiation, shared initiation, and a fair perception of the division at divorce relate to better mental health. Contrary to expectations, longer trajectories and trajectories characterized by conflict do not relate to worse mental health in the long run. A new partner seems to be the key for greater well-being after divorce.     

Gender and Age Differences in Child Adjustment to Parental Separation

Abstract

The present study examined gender and age differences in adjustment among children whose parents have separated. Measures designed specifically to assess family functioning during the divorce process (the Divorce Adjustment Inventory-Revised, and Child Divorce Adjustment Inventory), along with a measure of self-esteem and interviews with children, provide an in-depth exploration of the experience of families during the transitional period of separation. Results indicate that (1) parents of girls reported higher resolution of the separation, (2) high self-esteem for girls was mediated by residential parents' high socioeconomic status, (3) older children exhibited higher adjustment than younger children, and (4) father-headed families indicated higher adjustment before and after separation. Using a model of divorce as a process, results are discussed in relation to findings from studies of post-divorce and pre-separation families to provide a more complete picture of the divorce experience and child adjustment to that experience.     

Religion,Infidelity, and Divorce: Reexamining the Effect of Religious Behavior on Divorce Among Long-Married Couples

Previous scholarship linking marital infidelity and divorce has tended to have 2 limitations: focusing on young marriages and overlooking the influence of religiosity. Using data from the panel study of Marital Instability over the Life Course (N = 763), we address both of these limitations. Using structural equation modeling and proportional hazards modeling, we examine the effect of religiosity on marital infidelity and subsequent divorce among couples married for at least 12 years. Our analyses reveal that religiosity reduces the likelihood of marital infidelity among these couples. However the effect of religiosity on the likelihood of a subsequent divorce is more complicated: Religiosity appears to indirectly reduce the likelihood of a subsequent divorce by increasing levels of marital happiness. Surprisingly, no influence is found of marital infidelity on marital stability or divorce. Implications for scholars concerned with marital stability are discussed.     

The Effectiveness of Fisher’s Rebuilding Group Intervention on Divorce Adjustment and General Health of Iranian Divorced Women

This research explores the effects of participating in the Rebuilding Seminar on postdivorce adjustment and the general health of divorced women in Arak, Iran. For this quasi-experimental study, 15 participants were recruited through convenience sampling. Prior to the participation in group intervention, participants were asked to complete a demographic questionnaire, the Fisher Divorce Adjustment Scale (FDAS), and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ–28). Participants then completed the 10 weekly, 2-hour group intervention program. After the completion of the group intervention, postintervention questionnaires were administered. Results indicate that this particular educational program affected adjustment in participants on all subscales of the FDAS, except for social self-worth. The results also suggest that the intervention program was effective on all subscales of the GHQ–28, except for somatic symptoms. Due to numerous changes in the life of divorced women and the stressful nature of divorce, designing and implementing effective intervention plans seems necessary and constructive.     

Infidelity, initiation, and the emotional climate of divorce: are there implications for mental health?

A large literature has examined the role of "secondary" stressors, such as problems with finances, social support, residential mobility, and children, in producing the well-documented association between divorce and a variety of psychopathological conditions. Much less attention, however, has been paid to variation in the "primary" disruption experience. We address this omission using data from the National Survey of Families and Households to investigate the interrelationships among depression, initiator status, and spousal infidelity. While we find little evidence of direct effects of initiator status or spousal infidelity on post-divorce depression, the importance of these characteristics emerges when they are considered in an interactive context. Specifically, while divorce initiation is associated with reduced depression among individuals with unfaithful spouses, initiation is associated with increased depression in the absence of spousal infidelity. Taken together, our findings suggest that characteristics of the divorce experience may interact in complex ways to produce variation in mental health outcomes.     

The Consequences of Divorce for Adults and Children

I use a divorce‐stress‐adjustment perspective to summarize and organize the empirical literature on the consequences of divorce for adults and children. My review draws on research in the 1990s to answer five questions: How do individuals from married and divorced families differ in well‐being? Are these differences due to divorce or to selection? Do these differences reflect a temporary crisis to which most people gradually adapt or stable life strains that persist more or less indefinitely? What factors mediate the effects of divorce on individual adjustment? And finally, what are the moderators (protective factors) that account for individual variability in adjustment to divorce? In general, the accumulated research suggests that marital dissolution has the potential to create considerable turmoil in people's lives. But people vary greatly in their reactions. Divorce benefits some individuals, leads others to experience temporary decrements in well‐being, and forces others on a downward trajectory from which they might never recover fully. Understanding the contingencies under which divorce leads to these diverse outcomes is a priority for future research.     

The Role of Forgiveness in Divorce Adjustment and the Impact of Affect

The role of forgiveness and affect was investigated in relation to divorce adjustment. Ninety-one participants separated from their ex-spouse less than 30 months completed a background questionnaire, the Enright Forgiveness Inventory (EFI), the Self Forgiveness Scale (SFS), the Center for Epidemiological Studies–Depression Inventory (CES–D), the Spielberger State–Trait Anger Inventory (STAXI–2), and the Fisher Divorce Adjustment Scale (FDAS). There were significant relationships between depression and the capacity to forgive and between being in an angry feeling state and harboring a lack of forgiveness toward the ex-spouse. The relationship that emerged as the most powerful was that between trait anger and lack of self-forgiveness. Forgiveness intervention that occurs early in the divorce adjustment process is implicated, particularly in relation to the self.     

Perceived Causes of Divorce and Postdivorce Adjustment Among Recently Divorced Midlife Women

Fifty-four midlife, divorced women completed a checkIist of perceived causes of divorce and the Fisher's Divorce Adjustment Scale (among other measures). Of the 17 perceived causes of divorce on the checklist, subjects checked Husband Abused Me, Husband's Extramarital Affair, Husband Desired Independence, and Communication Problems significantly more often, and Conflict about In-Laws and My Desire for Independence significantly less often than would be expected by chance. Those subjects checking Husband's Lack of Interest in Me tended to have worse divorce adjustment, while those checking Husband's Alcohol or Drug Abuse, Financial Problems, or My Desire for Independence tended to have better divorce adjustment. Results are interpreted in terms of self-serving attributional bias, a process which is argued to be especially salient for the major role transition which divorce represents for the current cohort of midlife women. Additional data, as well as methodological and other theoretical issues are considered briefly.     

Causes of Divorce from the Perspective of Females in Slovenia

Divorce is a stressful life transition and does not have a single cause. This article presents the results of qualitative research on the causes for separation as perceived by women in Slovenia. Ten interviews were carried out with women divorced for less than 10 years and between 29 and 57 years old. The women created their own meanings of the reasons for divorce, all of which corresponded with other studies. The findings confirm the complex factors that contribute to the disintegration of marriage and that existed prior to the divorce. The research results present a vantage point for developing preventive activities that foster improved quality of interpersonal relationships in Slovenia.     

Parents Forever: An Assessment of the Perceived Value of a Brief Divorce Education Program

The intent of this study was to examine the perceived value of a 4-hour divorce education program for adults offered in a Midwestern state. Parents Forever: Education for Families in Divorce Transition is a divorce education program directed toward educating adults about separation, divorce, and the effects on children. Participants included 342 adults who attended the class and responded to retrospective questionnaires assessing their perceived satisfaction, knowledge, and demographic status. Also, 32 legal and community professionals participated in the program and responded to questions designed to assess perceptions of program value. Both respondent groups reported high satisfaction levels and significant knowledge gains through the class experience. Implications of the findings for program support and brief divorce interventions are discussed.     

Divorce,Repartnering, and Stepfamilies: A Decade in Review

This article reviews key developments in the past decade of research on divorce, repartnering, and stepfamilies. Divorce rates are declining overall, but they remain high and have risen among people older than age 50. Remarriage rates have declined, but the overall proportion of marriages that are remarriages is rising. Transitions in parents' relationships continue to be associated with reduced child well-being, but shifting patterns of divorce and repartnering during the past decade have also reshaped the family lives of older adults. We review research on the predictors and consequences of these trends and consider what they reveal about the changing significance of marriage as an institution. Overall, recent research on divorce, repartnering, and stepfamilies points to the persistence of marriage as a stratified and stratifying institution and indicates that the demographic complexity of family life is here to stay.     

It Attacked My Change: An Exploratory Study with Young Adults on the Impact of Divorce and Their Adjustment Processes During Adolescence

Semistructured interviews were conducted with 2 female students, 21 and 24 years old. The participants experienced parental divorce during early adolescence (12 years old). This research examined the participants’ own views on the impact of parental divorce and their adjustment processes. The majority of participants’ narratives indicated that they had experienced negative effects of parental divorce. Results suggested that their adjustment was a long process in which mothers, peers, and psychologists had an important role in their coping process. Divorce and associated events were found to have a direct impact on participants’ development of identity, emotions, intimate relationships, father–child relationships, and views about forming their own families. The results were discussed in relation to the previous literature. Additionally, areas for psychotherapeutic emphasis are presented.     

Changing Partners: Toward a Macrostructural‐Opportunity Theory of Marital Dissolution

We merge marital history data for respondents in the National Survey of Families and Households with census data describing the sex composition of their local marriage markets and occupations to examine the impact of the availability of spousal alternatives on marital dissolution. Proportional hazards regression models that adjust for left truncation reveal that the risk of divorce is highest in geographically defined marriage markets where either husbands or wives encounter numerous alternatives to their current partner. Couples are also more likely to divorce when the wife works in an occupation having relatively many men and few women, but husbands' occupational sex ratio has no effect on the risk of marital dissolution. The destabilizing effects of the availability of spousal alternatives in the local marriage market and in wives' occupations are equally strong among couples with many and few other risk factors for divorce. Our findings suggest that spouses' structural opportunities to form alternative opposite‐sex relationships are an important factor in explaining why some couples divorce.     

Postdivorce Parenting: A Study of Recently Divorced Mothers and Fathers

ABSTRACT

Divorce is challenging for parents with children, commonly resulting in a series of individual and interpersonal adjustments. The time immediately following divorce can be particularly difficult. This study used a modified grounded theory approach to explore the experiences of 99 recently divorced mothers and fathers. Analysis of written narratives revealed 4 emergent groups of parents who described their postdivorce parenting experiences: good divorce, good enough, bad to better, and bad. Each group described their experiences across several areas including coparenting, father involvement, challenges of single parenting, personal turmoil, and their children’s adjustment. Implications for research and divorce education are discussed.     

How a Divorcee’s Sexual Life Is Socially Constructed and Understood in the Iranian Culture

Sexual well-being is an important factor in postdivorce adjustment and presents various challenges for divorced women in Iran. With an alarming number of marriages ending in divorce in Iran, the postdivorce sexuality adjustment process has become a major concern. Meanings attached to the sexuality of a divorcee necessitate different adjustment and coping strategies among women. How these meanings are generated, negotiated, and modified in Iranian contexts has yet to be explored. We used a grounded theory approach to analyze the extensive, rich data obtained through sustained interaction with the informants as well as through in-depth individual interviews and focus group discussions. “Sociosexual problems” was found to be one of the main domains in our study. Participants experienced a negative impact from divorce on their sexual lives, including sexual interactions. Social isolation and social exclusion resulted from the avoidance of stereotypic interactions and were often a consequence of difficulties with concealment of sexual needs due to stigma. Women discussed a range of negative experiences arising in response to their sexual needs in postdivorce life. The analysis revealed the complexities of gendered postdivorce sexual trajectories. Based on the findings, articulating a sexual health model specific for divorced women seems important.     

Parents Forever: Evaluation of an Online Divorce Education Program

Divorce education programs are conducting increasingly rigorous impact evaluations to assess if their curriculum improves parenting practices, reduces conflict in the coparenting relationship, and improves outcomes for children. This article presents a 6-month follow-up evaluation of the online version of Parents Forever, an 8-hour divorce education course developed by the University of Minnesota Extension. At follow-up, parents (N = 232) reported significant improvements on several questions about postdivorce parenting and well-being, indicating that the online version of Parents Forever is effective in promoting positive behavioral change for parents.     

The Relationship Between Perceived Interparental Conflict and Malaysian Young Adults' Attitudes Toward Divorce

In the context of an upward trend in divorce rates in Malaysia, this article explores the relationship between Malaysian young adults' perceptions of interparental conflict and their own attitudes toward divorce. Two questionnaires were administered to 160 young adults between 18 and 30 years old: the Attitude Towards Divorce Scale and the Perceptions of Interparental Conflict?Intensity/Frequency Scale. A positive relationship was found between perceived intensity and frequency of interparent conflict and attitudes toward divorce in males and females, respectively; however, the associations were weak. Future investigations of divorce need to take into consideration both the cultural factors that are influential within a society and how they shape gender norms within that population to gain a greater understanding of this relationship. Such investigations will increase the understanding of non-Western culture's unique interaction between attitudes and divorce, thus potentially aiding future efforts to strengthen marriages and families.     

Validity and Reliability of the Spanish Translation of the Attitudes Towards Divorce Scale

The set of studies described in this article analyzed the psychometric properties of the Attitudes Towards Divorce Scale (ATDS; Kinnaird & Gerrard, 1986) in a group of 964 Spanish emerging adults between 18 and 30 years old. Factorial validity, concurrent validity, internal reliability, and measurement invariance across males and females were examined. Two factors accounted for 50% of the total variance: positive and negative attitudes toward divorce. This 2-factor structure fit adequately in males and females. The internal consistency of the questionnaire was good (Cronbach’s α = .74), and its convergent validity was supported by a significant positive correlation with the Attitudes Towards Marriage Scale and gender differences in attitudes toward divorce. Overall, the results suggest that the AD, the Spanish version of the ATDS, is a reliable and valid instrument that could be used to measure Spanish emerging adults’ attitudes toward divorce.