Divorce and the Economy
According to this New York Times article fall and winter are the “high seasons” for divorce. I can’t say that I’ve seen that in my counseling practice. I do know that September and January are noted around our offices as the time for divorced parents to take one another back to court to redefine the [...]
Children and Divorce
Paul Amato is a researcher at Penn State University. Dr. Amato recently co-authored a study titled the National Longitudinal Study of Marriage. Amato and his co-researcher Dr. Alan Booth wanted to look at – among other things – the effects of divorce on children. “We discovered that kids from certain kinds of marriages didn’t suffer [...]
Divorce and ADHD
From Reuters: Divorce rates higher when child has ADHD. Parents of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may be more likely than other parents to divorce before their child’s 8th birthday, a new study suggests. The study included nearly 500 couples – 286 had a child with ADHD and 206 had a child without this [...]
Talking About Divorce
I’ve often heard pastors and counselors say couples should take the word divorce out of their vocabulary. I understand what they mean: making threats isn’t good for any marriage. But, never thinking about divorce or mentioning the word isn’t a good idea. The reality is that with no-fault divorce laws written the way they are [...]
A Real Marriage
Love, at least in a marriage, is a combination of passion and commitment. One of the more difficult – and increasingly common – problems in marital therapy is what does one spouse do when he or she realizes commitment is the only thing keeping their partner in the marriage? Passion, that feeling of being in [...]
The Business of Divorce
In a recent blog entry (The Divorce Industrial Complex) Al Mohler writes: Few Americans seem to understand that marriage is being undermined by what can be called a “Divorce Industrial Complex” that includes lawyers, counselors, court personnel, and various others. I suppose I should be offended. I am one of those counselors who benefits financially [...]
Divorce Myths: #10
Myth #10: It is usually men who initiate divorce proceedings. (From David Popenoe’s Top Ten Myths of Divorce.) Popenoe writes: Two-thirds of all divorces are initiated by women. One recent study found that many of the reasons for this have to do with the nature of our divorce laws. For example, in most states women [...]
Divorce Myths: #9
Myth #9: Being very unhappy at certain points in a marriage is a good sign that the marriage will eventually end in divorce. (From David Popenoe’s Top Ten Myths of Divorce.) Popenoe writes: All marriages have their ups and downs. Recent research using a large national sample found that eighty six percent of people who [...]
Divorce News
I’m always looking for research that supports and encourages marriage. Research articles that underscore the potential damage of divorce, especially on children, are filed away. But this has to be the weirdest piece of social science research I’ve seen in a long time: Planet feels heat of divorce UNHAPPY couples used to stick together for [...]
Divorce Myths: #8
Myth #8: Following divorce, the children involved are better off in stepfamilies than in single-parent families. (From David Popenoe’s Top Ten Myths of Divorce.) Popenoe writes: The evidence suggests that stepfamilies are no improvement over single-parent families, even though typically income levels are higher and there is a father figure in the home. Stepfamilies tend [...]
