Changing Attitudes Toward Separation and Divorce: Causes and Consequences

This paper addresses several issues concerning separation and divorce attitudes and attitude change, using data from an intergenerational panel study of mothers and their children. A definite trend toward approval of marital dissolution is observed between 1962 and 1980. A theoretical model of the determinants of attitudes shows that affiliation with Catholicism or fundamentalist Protestantism tends to reduce approval of marital dissolution, but that between 1962 and 1980 the effect of Catholicism declined and the effect of fundamentalist religion increased. Church attendance also has an important traditional influence on marital dissolution attitudes. Older women had the most approving attitudes in 1962, but they experienced the smallest subsequent change. Age at marriage is also negatively related to approval of marital dissolution. Attitudes toward marital dissolution are shown to have little influence on subsequent marital dissolution, whereas a marital dissolution influences attitudes significantly. There is substantial stability of individual attitudes over time, and mothers have an important influence on the attitudes of their children.