Income Changes Following Divorce and Remarriage

The purpose of this research was to detemine how gender and divorce affect per capita family income. The data were the young men and young women cohorts of the National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Market Experience. All individuals who were married were followed for ten years and divided into three groups: (1) those who remained married during the entire period, (2) those who divorced sometime during the period and did not remarry, and (3) those who divorced during the study period and remarried. Per capita family income was indexed for inflation and analyzed over time, controlling for race, education, and age. It was found that for female per capita income decreased substantially. Among those who remained remarried there was no difference between males and females in per capita family income. Differences between male and female income levels could not be attributed solely to number of dependents. Even among those with no dependents, females had much lower incomes than males. Furthermore, having dependents had a more detrimental effect on females than males. Remarriage improved per capita family income of females and reduced per capita family income of males. Some ways to decrease the level of economic crises following divorce were identified.