New Stepfamily Research Findings.


Heintz-Martin, V., Le Bourdais, C., & Hamplova, D. (2014). Childbearing among canadian stepfamilies  . Canadian Studies in Population, 41(1-2), 61-77. doi:https://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/csp/article/view/21636

King, V., Thorsen, M. L., & Amato, P. R.Factors associated with positive relationships between stepfathers and adolescent stepchildren. Social Science Research, (0) doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2014.03.010

Updated List of Divorce & Remarriage Research Listing for 2013


The list of some of the most important research studies related to divorce, remarriage and stepfamilies has been updated for the year 2013.  This is not a complete list, but the major studies that provide new insights into marriage formation, custody, law and so forth.

Similar summaries can be found for 2010, 2011, and 2012.

New results for 2014 are also summarized here.  

New Evidence that the Divorce Rate has been going up the past 30 years


recent report by Sheela Kennedy and Steven Ruggles from the Minnesota Population Center at the University of Minnesota, challenges the common reports that the divorce has been declining.  In this 2014 report Kennedy and Ruggles write that rather than going down, the divorce rate in the US has been steadily increasing for the past 30 years. This is a startling and important reexamination of recent trends in divorce.

See longer discussion at Huffington Post……

New Research Articles on Divorce–Jan & Feb., 2014


A complete list of the major articles published in 2014 with links to other articles.  Complete list of articles from. 

Divorce continues to be an important area of family and social science research.  Below are a few of the studies published in the early part of 2014 that provide insight into divorce issues.  Included in this summary are demographic, economic, causes of divorce, adjustment issues for adults and children, divorce education, marriage & relationship education, non-residential parenting and a new report on custody and shared parenting.

Demographic Issues

Bellido, H., & Marcén, M.Divorce laws and fertility. Labour Economics, (0) doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2014.01.005

Kennedy, S., & Ruggles, S. (2014). Breaking up is hard to count: The rise of divorce in the united states, 1980-2010. Demography, , 1-12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13524-013-0270-9

Kulu, H. (2014). Marriage duration and divorce: The seven-year itch or a lifelong itch? Demography, , 1-13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13524-013-0278-1

Divorce & Economics– Especially the Recession

Baghestani, H., & Malcolm, M. (2014). Marriage, divorce and economic activity in the US: 1960-2008. Applied Economics Letters, , 528-532. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2013.872753

Cohen, P. (2014). Recession and divorce in the united states,. Population Research and Policy Review, 1-14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11113-014-9323-z

Causes of Divorce

Røsand, G. B., Slinning, K., Røysamb, E., & Tambs, K. (2014). Relationship dissatisfaction and other risk factors for future relationship dissolution: A population-based study of 18,523 couples. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 49(1), 109-119. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00127-013-0681-3

Adult Adjustment to Divorce

Kulik, L., & Kasa, Y. (2014). Adjustment to divorce: A comparison of ethiopian immigrant and israeli-born men. Journal of Community Psychology, 42(2), 191-208. 

Children’s Adjustment to Divorce

Mandemakers, J. J., & Kalmijn, M. (2014). Do mother’s and father’s education condition the impact of parental divorce on child well-being? Social Science Research, 44(0), 187-199. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2013.12.003

Non-residential & Shared Parenting Issues

Finzi-Dottan, R., & Cohen, O. (2014). Predictors of parental communication and cooperation among divorcing spouses. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 23(1), 39-51. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10826-012-9684-z

Modecki, K. L., Hagan, M. J., Sandler, I., & Wolchik, S. A. (2014). Latent profiles of nonresidential father engagement six years after divorce predict long-term offspring outcomes. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, , 1-14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2013.865193

Rodriguez, S. R. (2014). “We’ll only see parts of each other’s lives:” the role of mundane talk in maintaining nonresidential parent–child relationships. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 

Aging, Intergenerational Issues and Divorce

Cooney, T. M., Proulx, C. M., Snyder-Rivas, L., & Benson, J. J. (2014). Role ambiguity among women providing care for ex-husbands. Journal of Women & Aging, 26(1), 84-104. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08952841.2014.859502

Ganong, L., & Coleman, M. (2014). Responsibility inferences and intergenerational obligations to parents and stepparents: Are Step/Children less obligated when older adults are at fault for their problems? Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 55(1), 64-81. doi:10.1080/10502556.2013.862098

Stepfamily Issues

Doodson, L. J., & Davies, A. P. C. (2014). Different challenges, different well-being: A comparison of psychological well-being across stepmothers and biological mothers and across four categories of stepmothers. Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 55(1), 49-63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10502556.2013.862094

Marriage & Relationship Education

Cordova, J. V. (2014). Findings and future directions for marriage checkup research. Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association, Washington, DC. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/14321-011

Cordova, J. V. (2014). The marriage checkup practitioner’s guide: Promoting lifelong relationship health. Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association, Washington, DC. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/14321-000

Divorce Education

Stallman, H. M., & Sanders, M. R. (2014). A randomized controlled trial of family transitions triple P: A group-administered parenting program to minimize the adverse effects of parental divorce on children. Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 55(1), 33-48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10502556.2013.862091

Legal Issues and Divorce Services 

Pruett, M. K., & DiFonzo, J. H. (2014).  Closing the Gap: Research, Policy, Practice and Shared Parenting AFCC Think Tank Final Report to be published in Family Court Review

Research Methods for Divorce Research

Lamela, D., Figueiredo, B., Bastos, A., & Martins, H. (2014). Psychometric properties of the portuguese version of the posttraumatic growth inventory short form among divorced adults. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 30(1), 3-14. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000161

Other Summaries of divorce research for 2010,  2011, 2012, 2013 

New US Census Data on Divorce?


In the last 2-3 days I have seen several mentions in the “business press” about new 2012 US Census data on  the number of divorces increasing.  For example, here is the sentence from Bloomberg….Worsening divorce rate….  After doing some looking in the US Census data and American Community Survey…. I can’t find this data.  Anyone know where it is?

This figure provides the most current trend in US divorce rate in the last 10 years that I can find and here is the trend in US divorce rates over the past 100 years.