Did Unilateral Divorce Laws Raise Divorce Rates in Western Europe?

The increase in European divorce rates over the past decades was accompanied by several changes in divorce laws. Yet for European countries, research on the effects of divorce law on the divorce rate is scarce. Most of the existing studies are based on data from North America and provide numerous, but inconsistent, results. We use fixed‐effects regression models to examine the impact of the introduction of unilateral divorce on the divorce rate in Western European countries. We find that de facto unilateral divorce practices led to a sustainable increase in the divorce rate, whereas legal rights to unilaterally divorce had no long‐run effects.     

Is the Partner Who Decides to Divorce More Attractive? A Comparison Between Initiators and Noninitiators

Five hundred eighty divorced individuals from Germany, Italy, and Switzerland provided retrospective reports on the perceived similarities and differences between themselves and their former partner and on their own and their partner's attractiveness. Initiators and noninitiators were compared with regard to these different variables. Results demonstrated that most divorcees perceived themselves to be quite similar to their former partner. Initiating women were more likely than noninitiating women to perceive themselves as different from their former partner in personality, norms, and needs and to evaluate their former partner to be less attractive. Initiating men were more likely than noninitiating men to perceive differences with regard to the personality between themselves and their partners.     

Parenting Disputes After Separation and Divorce: Who Needs a Family Lawyer?

Australia's family law system continues to be plagued by serious delays. This article acknowledges the need for legal interventions in post‐separation parenting disputes in which individuals may be at risk, or in cases of genuine emergency. The article next contrasts cases involving significant risk or urgency with the many ‘ordinary’ (even if sometimes complex) post‐separation disputes over parenting in which these circumstances are not present. I argue that in such cases, legal advice, legally informed dispute processes, and court hearings are remnants from earlier attitudes to separation and divorce. These interventions are expensive, frequently destructive of ongoing parental relationships, and at their heart, inappropriate for considering the needs of children. They also divert time and resources from the critical investigative and legal decision‐making processes needed in urgent or risk‐related cases. I propose that legal narratives in ‘ordinary’ post‐separation parenting disputes be replaced by narratives focused on the main drivers of these disputes, which are invariably expressed in terms of relationship difficulties. Such narratives are amenable to facilitative, therapeutic, and systemic interventions aimed at achieving self‐determined resolutions. They contrast markedly with narratives reflecting common law notion of normative resolutions derived from the application of legal precedent. Key issues in the first section of the article are then teased out via the reflections of an imaginary separated parent in an ‘ordinary,’ albeit difficult and emotionally intense, dispute about how to care for the children. In the final section, I offer brief clinical and systemic reflections on past practice and on future narratives focused on individual self‐determination.     

Should It Be Easy? Divorce Process Attitudes Among Those Who Have Split Up in Midlife

This grounded theory analysis examines the gray divorced population’s attitudes about the divorce process, that is, whether those who have experienced a divorce at age 50 or older believe divorce should be easier or harder to obtain in U.S. society. Among the 40 men and 40 women interviewed in this analysis, there were divorce delayers, who wanted to make divorce laws stricter; divorce facilitators, who championed more flexible divorce laws; divorce ambivalents, who held mixed views; and marriage gatekeepers, who advocated on behalf of status quo divorce laws but tougher relationship-strengthening requirements before marriage. The diversity of these participants’ views reflects those voices in the general population who continue to see divorce as a complex decision for most couples.     

Who speaks up to whom? A relational approach to employee voice

We adopt a relational approach to examine the effects of social relations and formal structure on who speaks up to whom about problems at work. Data were collected in a two-wave employee survey in three Dutch preschools. Using exponential random graph modeling, we found significant positive effects of formal structure (recipient's hierarchical level; team co-membership) and good relations between speaker and recipient on the likelihood of voice in a dyad. Speaker's hierarchical level had positive effects, significant in Wave 1. Speaker's degree centrality significantly reduced the likelihood of voice, whereas recipient's degree centrality had no effect.     

Is Your Spouse More Likely to Divorce You if You Are the Older Partner?

The authors assessed how the relative age of spouses affects whether men or women initiate a divorce, using data from the National Survey of Families and Households. Ex‐spouses' reports of who left generally agreed, but not always, so the analysis used a latent class model embedded in an event‐history model with competing risks that the woman leaves the man or the man leaves the woman. Support was not found for the hypothesis that age heterogamy itself increases the odds of divorce: Even large age differences did not make men more likely to leave younger wives, and women's exits were as likely when the marriage is homogamous as when she was older. The main conclusion is that both men and women are more likely to leave if their spouse is older than they are. The effects were stronger for men, but the gender difference in effect size was not statistically significant.     

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.     

Who Is Protected?

Many employers have excluded women whose infertility is not medically documented from allegedly hazardous work claiming they feared if the women became pregnant, their fetuses would be harmed. In United Auto Workers v. Johnson Controls, the Supreme Court held in 1991 that so-called "fetal protection policies" are unlawful sex discrimination. After examining four cases challenging exclusionary policies in Britain and the United States, this article unmasks and argues against the assumptions underlying such policies. By returning to well-established sex discrimination doctrine, moving away from a male norm, and reaffirming women's right to both work and have children, the Supreme Court's decision in UAW V. Johnson Controls is an important victory. The decision should help to break down job segregation, prompt the EEOC to act, and clear the way for addressing questions of health and safety rather than equality and difference.     

Who is Kin?

Abstract

This article explores the ways in which African Americans, define family and kinship. Using data collected using ethnographic methods, issues such as the level of ongoing commitment to extended family structures, fictive kin status and obligations and pathways to kinship status are examined. This study has broad implications for the delivery of culturally appropriate services to African American individuals and families.     

Who Is Adopted?

ABSTRACT

There are several advantages of using large representative samples to study adoption-related issues, and existing databases are increasingly used for this purpose. Large scale surveys are often limited, however, in the number and type of questions that are asked regarding adoption. Conceptual and methodological issues in measuring adoption status are discussed, and a rich new database-the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (Add Health)-is used to illustrate these complexities. In Add Health school survey data, adolescents were asked a direct question about whether or not they were adopted and whether they lived with biological parents. During home interviews, adolescents were not asked about adoption status per se, but they could be classified as adopted if they lived with adoptive rather than biological parents. Parents' and adolescents' reports of adoption status and living arrangements are compared in Add Health data to illustrate the complexities of measuring adoption status when using archival data. For research to be scientifically credible and to enhance the accumulation of knowledge, investigators need to be precise about the concepts and measures they use in studying adoption-related issues, particularly when using previously collected survey data.     

How Does Divorce Affect Iranian Women's Sexual Well-Being?

Sexuality and divorce are two interwoven subjects with complex effects on women's sexual well-being in Iranian culture. Results of this exploratory study using focus group discussions and individual interviews revealed how the sexual well-being of women was influenced by the divorce experience through common patterns and recurring themes. A total of 26 women participated voluntarily in the study. They were approached through a selected social support group in a center in West Tehran in 2011, and all had been divorced for less than 10 years. For the majority, sexuality-related matters became complicated and jeopardized their overall well-being in postdivorce life. This finding, along with the fact that the majority were seeking financial and emotional support, implies that counseling women and providing economic support for postdivorce life might improve women's sexual well-being.     

Why is the Divorce Rate Declining in Indonesia?

This article examines trends in marital dissolution in Indonesia. Analysis considers the impact of educational expansion, delayed marriage, urbanization, increasing employment before marriage, legislative change, and increased free choice in marriage on the decline in marital disruption. Trends such as delayed marriage and educational expansion account for about one third of the decline in marital dissolution. Moreover, factors associated with marital disruption are shifting in importance. In particular, age at marriage and marital duration are becoming less reliable predictors of marital stability, whereas education is becoming more important. We conclude that the shifting forces governing marital formation and dissolution in Indonesia have modified the linkages between the conjugal couple, broader kinship systems, and modes of economic support such that traditional patterns sustaining high levels of marital instability are no longer in effect.     

How Long Does a Santa Barbara Divorce Take?

There has been considerable research about the amount of time the psychological grief process requires when couples divorce. However, there has been little research on the time the actual process of divorce requires. To address this, we obtained free and publicly available information on divorce cases from Santa Barbara County. We are able to offer some insight about the relationship among the length of divorce, marriage length, and having minor children. Our results are consistent with those found in other literature that focuses on the length of the grief process, and our results are consistent with our experiences in family law practice and mediation.