Effects of Divorce on Society
Effects of Divorce on SocietyIncreased youth crime rate is caused largely by absent fathers
as a result of divorce made too easy. Consider this chilling forecast.
When we pass the year 2000, we will see two groups of working age
adults emerging. One group will have received psychological, social,
economic, educational and moral benefits and the other group will have
been denied them all. The first group will have grown up with a father
present in the house and the second group will have not had a father
present. The groups will be roughly equal in size. In order to be
divorced in my parent's era of the fifties, one mate had to be proven
adulterous. Legally, one party was deemed guilty and one was innocent.
That finding affected each party financially and socially enough so
that most couples tried hard not to divorce. In Canada the rate of
divorce in 1951 was one out of twenty couples. In the late sixties,
the "sexual revolution" began and couples rebelled against the
constraints of marriage. Movie makers and journalists became rich
extolling the virtues of free love and liberation.
The addition of more grounds for divorce and the elimination
of the need to appear in court made it easier for couples to split.
Now there are "no fault" divorces which further decrease the stigma.
By 1987 one out of two couples divorced. Since then, the annual
divorce rate has dipped slightly. The stigma is almost gone. Books are
written about doing your own divorce. One can obtain a low budget
quickie divorce by phone or fax to the Dominican Republic in about
three days. There are "divorce parties". Even the Royal Family
discusses its divorce dilemmas on t.v.
The divorce picture is not all rosy. According to sociologist
Lenore Weitzman, divorced women get by on about 64% of the income they
had during marriage. For their children, this translates into less
money for school activities, clothes, opportunities for traveling and
learning, day care and sometimes food. Children can be called on to do
adult tasks before they are ready, like caring for younger siblings.
Older children may be required to work long hours at a job to help
bring money to the family. As a result, they may fall behind in their
school work. After a while, the child may feel it is hopeless to try
to keep up and decide to quit school.
At this point a girl may decide to get pregnant and bear a
child. She may feel that in doing so her life will have more meaning
and she will receive unconditional love from the child. A U.S.
National Longitudinal Survey of Youth reveals that 27% of girls from
divorced families become mothers versus 11% of girls from traditional
families. For boys, leaving school generally means a succession of low
paying...
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