The Effects of Divorce on Children - Family Research Council

K. Increased Cohabitation among Children as Adults
Children <strong>of</strong> divorced parents are more likely than children <strong>of</strong> always-married
parents to have more positive attitudes towards cohabitation 176 and more
negative attitudes towards marriage. 177 When they leave home, they are two to
three times as likely to cohabit 178 and to do so earlier, 179 especially if their parents
divorced during their teenage years. 180
Daughters <strong>of</strong> divorced parents anticipated cohabiting before marriage, regardless
<strong>of</strong> the amount <strong>of</strong> affection between them and their fathers. Among daughters <strong>of</strong>
intact marriages, it was mainly those with poor relationships with their fathers
who anticipated they would cohabit. 181
II. <strong>Effects</strong> on Religious Practice: Diminished
Faithfulness
Following a divorce, children are more likely to abandon their faith, 182 and they
may be less traditional themselves, with a parental model differing from a lifelong
commitment to marriage. 183 Adult <strong>of</strong>fspring raised in stepfamilies are less religious
176
William G. Axinn and Arland Thornton, “<strong>The</strong> Influence <strong>of</strong> Parents’ Marital Dissolutions on
Children’s Attitudes Toward Family Formation,” Demography 33 (1996) 66-81.
Suzanne Southworth and J. Conrad Schwarz, “Post-<strong>Divorce</strong> Contact, Relationship with Father,
and Heterosexual Trust in Female College Students,” American Journal <strong>of</strong> Orthopsychiatry 57
(1987): 379-381.
177
William G. Axinn and Arland Thornton, “<strong>The</strong> Influence <strong>of</strong> Parents’ Marital Dissolutions on
Children’s Attitudes toward Family Formation,” Demography 33 (1996): 66-81.
178
Daniel T. Lichter, Deborah Roempke Graefe, and J. Brian Brown, “Is Marriage a Panacea?
Union Formation among Economically Disadvantaged Unwed Mothers,” Social Problems 50
(2003): 60-86.
Rebecca A. Colman and Cathy Spatz Widom, “Childhood Abuse and Adult Intimate
Relationships: A Prospective Study,” Child Abuse and Neglect 28 (2004): 1133-1151.
Jay D. Teachman, “<strong>The</strong> Childhood Living Arrangement <strong>of</strong> Children and the Characteristics <strong>of</strong>
<strong>The</strong>ir Marriages,” Journal <strong>of</strong> Family Issues 25 (2004): 86-111.
179
Andrew J. Cherlin, Kathleen E. Kiernan, and P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, “Parental <strong>Divorce</strong> in
Childhood and Demographic Outcomes in Young Adulthood,” Demography 32 (1995): 299-316.
180
Paul R. Amato and Alan Booth, A Generation at Risk (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 1997), 112.
181
Suzanne Southworth and J. Conrad Schwarz, “Post-<strong>Divorce</strong> Contact, Relationship with Father,
and Heterosexual Trust in Female College Students,” American Journal <strong>of</strong> Orthopsychiatry 57
(1987): 379-381.
182
Sociologists at Nassau Community College in New York developed a pr<strong>of</strong>ile <strong>of</strong> former believers
who stopped practicing their religious beliefs: William Feigelman, Bernard S. Gorman, and
Joseph A. Varacalli, “Americans Who Give Up Religion,” Sociology and Social Research 76
(1992): 138-143.
183
Paul R. Amato and Alan Booth, “Consequences <strong>of</strong> divorce for attitudes toward divorce,”
Journal <strong>of</strong> Family Issues 12 (1991): 306-322. As cited in Alan Booth and Paul R. Amato,
“Parental Pre-<strong>Divorce</strong> Relations and Offspring Postdivorce Well-Being,” Journal <strong>of</strong> Marriage
and the Family 63 (2001): 207.
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