DIVORCE1988; Hetherington, Camara, and Featherman
1983). Such effects are found even after rigorous
controls are imposed for such things as race, sex,
years since the divorces, age at time of divorce,
parental income, parental education, number of
siblings, region of residence, educational materi-
als in the home, or the number of years spent in
the single-parent family. There are comparable
effects of divorce on occupational prestige, in-
come and earnings, and unemployment (Nock 1988).
White women who spent some childhood time
in a single-parent family as a result of divorce are
53 percent more likely to have teenage marriages,
111 percent more likely to have teenage births,
164 percent more likely to have premarital births,
and 92 percent more likely to experience marital
disruptions than are daughters who grew up in
two-parent families. The effects for black women
are similar, though smaller. Controls for a wide
range of background factors have little effect on
the negative consequences of divorce. Further,
remarriage does not remove these effects of di-
vorce. And there is no difference between those
who lived with their fathers and those who lived
with their mothers after divorce. Experiencing
parents’ divorce has the same (statistical) conse-
quences as being born to a never-married mother
(McLanahan and Bumpass 1988; McLanahan and
Sandefur 1994).
Such large and consistent negative effects have
eluded simple explanation. Undoubtedly much of
the divorce experience is associated with the alter-
ed family structure produced—in almost 90 per-
cent of all cases a single-mother family—and the
corresponding changes in family functioning. Such
a structure is lacking in adult role models, in
parental supervision, and in hierarchy. On this last
dimension, research has shown that divorced wom-
en and their children are closer (less distinguished
by generational distinctions) to one another than
is true in intact families. Parent and child are
drawn together more as peers, both struggling to
keep the family going. The excessive demands on
single parents force them to depend on their
children in ways that parents in intact families do
not, leading to a more reciprocal dependency
relationship (Weiss 1975, 1976). Single mothers
are ‘‘... likely to rely on their children for emo-
tional support and assistance with the practical
problems of daily life’’ (Hetherington, Camara,
and Featherman 1983, p. 218). In matters of disci-
pline, single mothers have been found to rely on
restrictive (authoritarian as opposed to authorita-
tive) disciplinary methods—restricting children’s
freedom and relying on negative sanctions—a pat-
tern psychologists believe reflects a lack of authori-
ty on the part of the parent (Hetherington 1972).
Whatever else it implies, the lack of generational
boundaries means a less hierarchical family and
less authoritative generational distinctions.The institutional contexts within which achieve-
ment occurs, however, are decidedly hierarchical
in nature. Education, the economy, and occupa-
tions are typically bureaucratic structures in which
an individual is categorically subordinate to a su-
perior—an arrangement Goffman described as an
‘‘eschelon authority structure’’ (1961, p. 42). The
nuclear family has been described as producing in
children the skills and attitudes necessary for com-
petition within such eschelon authority relation-
ships in capitalist production and family childrearing.
‘‘The hierarchical division of labor (in the econo-
my) is merely reflected in family life’’ (Bowles and
Gintis 1976, p. 144–147). The relative absence of
clear subordinate-superordinate relationships in
single-parent families has been argued to inade-
quately socialize children, or place them in a disad-
vantageous position when and if they find them-
selves in hierarchical organizations (Nock 1988).For Adults. A wide range of psychological
problems has been noted among divorcing and
recently divorced adults. A divorce occasions
changes in most every aspect of adult life; resi-
dence, friendship networks, economic situation,
and parental roles. Marriage in America makes
significant contributions to individual well-being.
Thus, regardless of the quality of the marriage that
ends, emotional distress is a near-universal experi-
ence for those who divorce (Weiss 1979). Anxiety,
anger, and fear are dominant psychological themes
immediately before and after divorce. At least for a
year or two after divorce, men and women report
psychosomatic symptoms of headaches, loss of
appetite, overeating, drinking too much, trem-
bling, smoking more, sleeping problems, and nerv-
ousness (Group for the Advancement of Psychia-
try 1980).The emotional problems occasioned by di-
vorce are accompanied by major changes in eco-
nomic situations, as well—especially for women.