ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF DIVORCE

What is the divorce rate in Oklahoma? According to the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative Group (2005), obtaining accurate statistics on divorce rates is difficult in the state because while all counties collect this information, they report it differently and some do not report it to the state at all. Ross (2002) states that, statistically, Oklahoma has one of the highest divorce rates in the country and this rate has not shown a great deal of decrease despite Governor Frank Keating's efforts, when he was Governor, to create the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative.

In particular, Ross (2002) notes that the divorce rate for the state hovers at around 20,000 divorces per year. However, some more recent statistics indicate that over the last decade and a half, there may be a trend in the direction of decline. In this regard, data collected by thee Oklahoma State Department of Health (2005) on divorce stats show at least a small reduction in the number of divorces from 1990 (Total number of divorces in Oklahoma = 24,997) to 2003 (Total number of divorces in Oklahoma = 17, 931).

Finding precise statistics on divorce rates among minorities is difficult for Oklahoma due to the problems with statistical data mentioned prior. However, it can be noted that general statistics for the nation indicate that minority divorce is increasing (Lawson & Sharpe, 2000) which means that any negative effec

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will increase by about 81 percent whereas for white mothers, the increase is only about 45 percent. According to Americans for Divorce Reform (2005) this is because married black mothers are more likely to work than married white mothers. However, when divorce occurs, the probability of black mothers working does not change, while recently divorced white women have an 18 percent greater probability of working. The foregoing statistics appear to be in accord with data collected specifically for divorced women in Oklahoma. In this regard, the National Center for Children in Poverty (2005) reports that poor children in Oklahoma tend to live in single parent families, many of which are due to divorce. Further, black children and Hispanic children in single parent families in Oklahoma are likely to have lower family incomes than white children. Role of Government The state of Oklahoma has taken several steps to reduce its divorce rate among women of all ethnic backgrounds. First, there is the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative (OMI), initiated by Governor Frank Keating, as a response to the fact that divorce was considered one of the single most important factors depressing state prosperity. Working in conjunction with OMI efforts is
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Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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