What is the current trend in divorce rates?

What is the current trend in divorce rates?

• A. Divorce rates are rising due to longer lifespans.
• B. Divorce rates are decreasing due to more stable marriages.
• C. Divorce rates are unaffected by social norms.
• D. The divorce rate is higher today due to reduced pressure to marry young and less stigma around divorce.

Answer: (D)

Divorce rates rise or fall largely with how society views marriage and the availability of divorce. When there is less stigma around divorce and less pressure to marry young, people feel freer to end a marriage that isn’t working. That social freedom makes divorce more permissible, so the observed rate tends to be higher today than in eras with stricter norms. The idea here is that changing attitudes and greater acceptance of divorce, along with shifts in when people marry, influence the overall trend. The other statements miss that connection. Longer lifespans don’t by themselves explain more divorces, and saying rates are decreasing because marriages are more stable contradicts the impact of shifting norms that make divorce more acceptable. Claiming divorce is unaffected by social norms ignores the well-established influence of culture, stigma, and expectations on people’s choices to stay married or divorce.

Divorce rates rise or fall largely with how society views marriage and the availability of divorce. When there is less stigma around divorce and less pressure to marry young, people feel freer to end a marriage that isn’t working. That social freedom makes divorce more permissible, so the observed rate tends to be higher today than in eras with stricter norms. The idea here is that changing attitudes and greater acceptance of divorce, along with shifts in when people marry, influence the overall trend.

The other statements miss that connection. Longer lifespans don’t by themselves explain more divorces, and saying rates are decreasing because marriages are more stable contradicts the impact of shifting norms that make divorce more acceptable. Claiming divorce is unaffected by social norms ignores the well-established influence of culture, stigma, and expectations on people’s choices to stay married or divorce.