divorce

divorce The formal legal dissolution of a legally constituted marriage. The conditions necessary to terminate a marriage in divorce vary widely from culture to culture and over time. In certain societies the rights of men and women in this respect are still highly unequal, but there appears to be a move in Western societies towards an acceptance of the idea of irretrievable breakdown of a marriage as suitable grounds for divorce. One of the most significant trends in the wake of this liberalization of divorce laws has been the increasing propensity for divorce proceedings to be initiated by women. In addition, it should be noted that definitions of what constitute marriage and divorce also vary widely, and that in Western societies divorce is increasingly preceded by extended periods of separation between partners, which renders the legal procedure increasingly less relevant.

In the United States and Britain over the past two decades, concern over rising divorce-rates has frequently reached the status of a moral panic, and it is often stated that, given the continuation of current rates, over one in three marriages contracted will end in divorce. However, these calculations must be considered in the light of high rates of remarriage among divorcees, and an increasing propensity to establish common-law rather than formalized legal unions among those groups most at risk of divorce (for example the young). Of course, the statistics say nothing of the social difficulties and personal suffering faced by many people experiencing the effects of divorce, including the children of broken marriages. Another well-publicized statistic indicates that one in five children in Britain, by the age of 16, will have experienced the divorce or separation of their parents, given current rates. In Social Origins of Depression (1978), George Brown and Tirril Harris identified divorce of parents as one of the more stressful life-events likely to have been experienced by women suffering from neurotic depressive conditions. The deleterious effects on divorcing individuals of legal wrangling over children and housing is also well documented.

The basic statistics, and some of their social policy implications, are discussed in Janet Finch , Family Obligations and Social Change (1989)
. See also FAMILY, SOCIOLOGY OF.