DIVORCEThe vast majority of those involved in divorce
experience a significant decline in their immediate
standard of living. This problem is especially acute
for women who—in almost 90 percent of cases—
assume custody of children. Immediately after a
divorce, women suffer an average 30 percent to 40
percent decline in their overall standards of living
(Hoffman and Duncan 1988; Peterson 1989). Ei-
ther in anticipation of or as a consequence of
divorce, there is typically an increase in divorced
women’s labor force participation. Analyzing na-
tional longitudinal data, Peterson estimates that
one year before the divorce decree (when most
divorcing individuals are separated), women’s av-
erage standard of living (total family income divid-
ed by the poverty threshold for a family of a
particular size) is 70 percent of its level in the
previous year. As a consequence of increased hours
worked, the standard of living increases one year
after divorce and by five or six years after divorce,
‘‘the standard of living of divorced women is about
85 percent of what it had been before separation’’
(1989, p. 48). Women who have not been em-
ployed during their marriages, however, are par-
ticularly hard-hit; the majority ending up in poverty.
Child support payments are not a solution to
the economic problems created by divorce for two
reasons. First, about one-quarter (24 percent) of
women due child support receive none (39 per-
cent of men awarded child support receive none).
Another one-quarter receive less than the court-
ordered amount. In 1991, the average amount of
child support received by divorced mothers was
$3,011 per year ($2,292 for men) (U.S. Bureau of
the Census 1995). About 16.7 million, or 85 per-
cent of the 19.8 million children in single-parent
families in 1997 were living with the mother; 60
percent of whom were divorced (U.S. Bureau of
the Census 1998a). Their median family income
was $22,999 compared with $34,802 for those in
single-father situations, and $51,681 for children
in households where both parents were present
(U.S. Bureau of the Census 1998a). Families head-
ed by single mothers are the most likely to be in
poverty, and represent 55 percent of all poor
families. In 1997, a third (31.6 percent) of all
single-mother families were in poverty compared
to 5.2 percent of two-parent families (U.S. Bureau
of the Census 1998b). Analyzing national longitu-
dinal data, Duncan concluded that changes in
family status—especially divorce and remarriage—
are the most important cause of change in family
economic well-being and poverty among women
and children (1984).Single-parent families in America have grown
dramatically as a result of increasing divorce rates.
And even though most divorced persons remarry,
Bumpass has shown that the average duration of
marital separation experienced by children under
age 18 was 6.3 years and 7.5 years for whites and
blacks respectively. In fact 38 percent of white and
73 percent of black children are still in a single-
parent family 10 years after the marital disrup-
tion—a reflection of blacks’ lower propensity to
remarry and their longer intervals between di-
vorce and remarriage (1984). The role of divorce
in the formation of single-parent families differs
by race. Among all single-parent white families, 25
percent are maintained by never-married moth-
ers, 47 percent by divorced (or separated) moth-
ers, 7 percent by never-married men, and 13 per-
cent by divorced or separated men. Among black
single-parent families, 59 percent are maintained
by never-married women, 28 percent by divorced
or separated women, 4 percent by never-married
men, and only 3 percent by divorced or separated
men. Divorce is the primary route to single-parent-
hood for white mothers, whereas out-of-wedlock
childbearing is for black mothers (U.S. Bureau of
the Census 1998c, Table 11; 1998d).Families headed by single women with child-
ren are the poorest of all major demographic
groups regardless of how poverty is measured.
Combined with frequent changes in residence and
in employment following divorce, children and
mothers in such households experience signifi-
cant instabilities—a fact reflected in the higher
rates of mental health problems among such wom-
en (Garfinkel and McLanahan 1986, pp. 11–17).CONCLUSIONHigh rates of remarriage following divorce clearly
indicate that marital disruption does not signify a
rejection of marriage. There is no evidence of
widespread abandonment of conjugal life by Ameri-
cans. Admittedly, marriage rates have dropped in
recent years. However, such changes are best seen
to be the result of higher educational attainments,