Divorce Rate Fluctuation as a Cohort Phenomenon

The rate of divorce in American society has exhibited patterns over the past century which have fascinated many students of marriage as an institution. For the first half of the last 110 years, the frequency of divorces is estimated to have increased gradually, from about three per ten thousand population in 1867 to about 12 in 1917.1 However, this slow, steady increase in the frequency of divorces was replaced during the 60year period since 1917 by a series of irregular fluctuations (see Figure 1). In particular, marriages formed during the First World War proved to be unstable in many cases and contributed to a small jump in divorces about 1920.2 In documenting a similar jump in Britain, Glass observed: