Occupational Level and Marital Disruption

that ample definition be carried in the stub of the record to indicate fully what is meant by number of children under 18. The writer's arguments for the inclusion of an item on date of separation got no support, and this important query was not adopted for the standard form. The United States divorce collections in former years included items on both separation date and marriage duration. No cross-tabluations respecting children were made, however. In 1922 the item on separation, having rarely been used, was dropped. studies, therefore, may more nearly represent the true condition regarding family stability. In desertion and nonsupport children are much more in evidence and thus present a counterpart to the alleged relationship in divorce. It should be remembered that in some cases desertions become divorces, while in others readjustments and reconciliations may occur. Some religious and racial groups are also wont to take recourse to desertion rather than divorce. Neither divorced nor deserted, and nowhere recorded, is another large group of families, separated or in serious domestic discord, about which we know little. Marital stability, in the final analysis, may have no general relationship to childbearing.