More evidence for trends in the intergenerational transmission of divorce: a completed cohort approach using data from the general social survey

Demography. 2011 May;48(2):581-92. doi: 10.1007/s13524-011-0025-4.

Abstract

Many studies have demonstrated that the children of divorce are disproportionately likely to end their own marriages. In previous work, I showed that the transmission of divorce between generations weakened substantially for General Social Survey (GSS) respondents interviewed between 1973 and 1996 (Wolfinger 1999); Li and Wu (2006, 2008) contended that my finding is a methodological artifact of the GSS's lack of marriage duration data. This article presents a completed-cohort approach to studying divorce using the GSS. The results confirm a decline in the probability of divorce transmission that cannot be explained by the right-censoring bias alleged by Li and Wu. This finding contributes to an ongoing debate about trends in the negative consequences of parental divorce, as well as demonstrating a useful approach to right-censored phenomena when event history data are not available.

MeSH terms

  • Age Factors
  • Cohort Studies
  • Divorce / statistics & numerical data
  • Divorce / trends*
  • Educational Status
  • Humans
  • Intergenerational Relations
  • Logistic Models
  • Marriage / statistics & numerical data*
  • Occupations / classification
  • Socioeconomic Factors
  • United States