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Rising Divorce Rates in the U.S.

Although consistently rising divorce rates in the United States are indicative of personal dissatisfaction and the inability or unwillingness of partners to reconcile their differences, it cannot be said that divorce is merely a result of personal characteristics; instead, demographic and societal-level variations in divorce rates illustrate how social and cultural factors can influence the chances that a marriage will end in divorce.

An initial look at the statistics regarding rates of divorce will prove useful as a means of establishing the relative effect of societal and demographic variations on divorce rates. Margolis (1989) reports a ten-fold increase in divorce between 1890 and 1987 (p. 6). A demographic portrait, or quantitative study of the human population trends, is more than a numbers game, however, because it poses crucial questions about population trends, and is thus an exploration of the quality of human life. This discussion will examine the impersonal demographic trends which have a fragmenting effect on the institution of marriage, as well as other societal-level correlates of the divorce rate. A demographic trend would be exemplified by the movement of a marriage population from the East to the West, whereas a societal-level correlate of the divorce rate would be shown by level of socioeconomic development, as one example.

In "Structural Determinants of the Divorce Rate: A Cross-societal Analysis," Trent and South (1989) look further than just the United States in their attempt to analyze societal-level correlates of the divorce rate. They examine data from 66 countries to conclude that the correlates are the following: socioeconomic development, the female labor participation rate, the sex ratio, and dominant religion (Trent & South, 1989, p. 391).

Trent and South's (1989) cross-cultural study verifies the generally accepted sociological assumption that increasing levels of socioeconomic development...

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Rising Divorce Rates in the U.S.. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 05:50, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1701548.html