Lowering Divorce Rates Urged as National Goal

0 Comments | Insight on the News, August 14, 2000 | by Cheryl Wetzstein

Conservative analysts argue that legislatures should reverse `no-fault' divorce laws and rewrite the tax code to strengthen marriages and discourage family disintegration.

Reducing divorce rates by one-third for families with children by the end of the decade should be a national goal, urge Heritage Foundation analysts Patrick Fagan and Robert Rector. If Congress set such a goal, it "would immediately focus national attention on the severe problems related to divorce," they say.

In the early 1970s, "no-fault" divorce swept the country, explains Bridget Maher, who recently published a paper, "Divorce Reform: Forming Ties That Bind" sponsored by the Family Research Council. While no-fault divorce was intended to make the process fairer and less hostile, the reforms created "a shift in power" in which the "right to divorce" took precedence over the commitment to remain married, Maher says. Four out of every five divorces since have been unilateral, or requested by only one spouse.

Maher lists "covenant" marriages, which are harder to escape than conventional marriages; laws requiring "mutual consent" for divorce; and more predivorce counseling as possible reforms. Maher, Fagan and Rector also advocate tax credits for parents in long-term marriages, marriage summits, community marriage-skills programs and laws to require both spouses to "mutually consent" to the divorce.

Federal and state governments spend $150 billion a year to subsidize single parenthood and $150 million to strengthen marriage, Fagan and Rector note in a paper titled "The Effects of Divorce on America." "Thus, for every $1,000 spent to deal with the effects of family disintegration, only $1 is spent to prevent that disintegration."

Reducing divorce and unwed child-bearing "would not only be good for children and society but, in the long run, will save money" they argue. That said, the effects of divorce "spill over into every aspect of life" note Rector and Fagan. According to studies, children whose parents divorce:

* Are increasingly the victims of abuse and neglect;

* Exhibit more health problems mental, emotional and physical;

* Are more frequently involved in crime and drug abuse;

* Have higher rates of suicide;

* More frequently demonstrate a diminished learning capacity;

* Perform less well in reading, spelling and math than peers from intact two-parent homes;

* Are more likely to repeat a grade, have higher dropout rates and lower rates of college graduation; and

* Are more likely to live in homes with reduced incomes.

BROKEN MARRIAGE
TROUBLED CHILDREN

A recent research paper on the effects of divorce
finds that children of divorce are more likely to
get in trouble than children in married homes.

Problem behaviors          Divorce          Intact
by children(*)                             Marriage

Lied about something
important                   18.6              11.6

Stole from a store           4.7               1.4

Damaged school
property                     2.8               2.5

Got drunk                    5.2               1.1

Hurt someone enough
to require doctor visit      5.2               2.5

Had to bring parents
to school                    6.6               3.1

Skipped school               2.0               1.1

(*)Number of incidents during measured time.

Source: National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1996, as reported in "The Effects of Divorce on America," by Heritage Foundation analysts Patrick F. Fagan and Robert Rector