Intergenerational Transmission of Divorce

Parental Divorce and Offspring Marital Behavior

Given the differences between people from divorced and intact families, it should come as little surprise that the children of divorce have distinctive marital behavior. This behavior is important for understanding why divorce rates are higher for people from nonintact families.

For many years, social scientists were divided as to whether parental divorce made marriage more or less likely among adult offspring. The answer is both. The children of divorce have disproportionately high marriage rates through age 20. However, if they remain single past that point, they are about one third less likely to ever get married, compared with their peers from intact families.

How can this pattern be explained? The children of divorce sometimes wed in order to escape unpleasant home lives; this is particularly true for [Page 879]youth living in stepfamilies. As previously noted, parental divorce increases the incidence of teen sexual activity and, for women, nonmarital births. Early sex and pregnancy may in turn lead to early marriage. Past age 20, there are several reasons that the children of divorce have lower marriage rates than do their counterparts from intact families. First, marriage may simply seem unappealing to some people who grew up in divorced families. Perhaps fearful of repeating their parents' experience, living with a partner out of wedlock may seem preferable; indeed, the children of divorce have high rates of nonmarital cohabitation and are more inclined to view cohabitation favorably. Half of the disparity in marriage rates between people from divorced and intact families can in fact be explained by the former's propensity to cohabit. Second, past age 20, the children of divorce may avoid marriage for the same reasons they have high divorce rates. As is shown, people who grew up in divorced families often have trouble in their own marriages because they evince problematic interpersonal behaviors. Assuming these behaviors are present prior to marriage, they may interfere with the formation of lasting relationships.

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