Introduction to Reasons for Divorce

Studies exploring why couples divorce tend to concentrate on lists of possible reasons for divorce: researchers often ask respondents to list their reasons for divorce, or to rank a list of events in order of importance. During the sixties, the first major study of divorce reasons⁽¹⁾ found that wives cited twice as many complaints as husbands, and were far more likely to complain of physical abuse, financial problems, drinking, and verbal abuse; husbands were more likely to cite in-law trouble and sexual incompatibility. Results varied by socioeconomic status: lower-status couples seemed more concerned with problem behaviors, while middle-class couples concentrated on emotional issues.

Over time, divorce trends reflected a decline in economic difficulties and problem behaviors as a reason for divorce, offset by an increase in the importance of sexual and emotional incompatibility. In a 1985 study⁽²⁾, the top reasons selected by both genders were communication problems, basic unhappiness, and incompatibility. Men and women tended to orient on different issues, however: the top factors for men seemed externally-oriented, while the women's tended to be relationship-oriented.

Subsequent research⁽³⁾ sorted divorce reasons into four major categories: "individual" reasons, which arise from personal expectations or beliefs of either partner; "dyadic" reasons, rooted in the relationship between the two partners; "cicumstantial" reasons, connected to external chance events (e.g., sickness); "network-nonromantic" reasons, emanating from the couple's interactions with others, such as family or friends; and "network-romantic" reasons, which require no explanation. Types of reasons tended to be related to divorce trajectories. For example, "rapid" dissolutions, proceeding quickly from diagnosis to divorce, were associated with more individual or network-romantic reasons and fewer dyadic ones, while "extended" dissolutions were associated with more network-nonromantic reasons.

One of the assigned class readings⁽⁴⁾ found that women in the research literature cited more overall reasons for divorce than men. Women mentioned a large variety of dyadic and social network reasons, while men tended to focus on dyadic sexual problems, outside sexual affairs, and external influences. You may remember that partners also tended to disagree on certain reasons for divorce.

To control for the disparity in number and type of reasons cited by individuals, we offered our respondents an extremely structured range of responses. We selected fifteen common reasons for divorce⁽⁵⁾ that were not covered elsewhere in our study (for example, alcoholism and physical abuse are covered in "Problem Behaviors").

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(5)Several of the items on the questionnaire were adapted from reasons cited in Robert Weiss (1975) Marital Separation. New York: Basic Books, Inc.