Could we fix the divorce rate in the United States?

Answer 1

The short answer is that we could probably lower divorce rates in the U.S. with a lot of hard work, but before discussing whether or not we can "fix" the divorce rate, let’s establish that there’s actually a problem to fix. Divorce statistics are often complicated, after all.

Indeed, the United States has a fairly high divorce rate—according to the National Center for Health Statistics, the 2017 crude divorce rate in the U.S. was 2.9 divorces per 1,000 people. Compared with the most recent data worldwide, that puts the United States in the top five.

Is it worth our time to pour money into preventing divorces? That's another question entirely. But for the purposes of this answer, let’s assume that you've already made those calculations, and you're determined to limit the number of divorces nationwide. Bringing that number down would be difficult—but it's definitely not impossible.

Bringing Down Divorce Rates in the United States

Many marriages simply don't work, and when a couple is miserable together, divorce isn't necessarily a bad idea—meaning that while it might be tempting to solve this problem by making divorces harder to obtain, that wouldn't be fair to couples in bad relationships. To limit divorces while preserving the right to divorce, we'll need to prevent bad marriages from occurring in the first place. Changing some of the factors that lead to divorce could potentially help. For instance:

Education Level - In the United States, higher education levels correlate with lower divorce rates; if you have an advanced degree, you’re less likely to get divorced than a high school graduate. That's not true worldwide (Italy is a notable exception), but in our culture, education seems to create healthier marriages—or, perhaps, educated people are more likely to choose partners that are better for them. Promoting higher education and making it more accessible might decrease divorce rates.

Marriage Age - The older you marry, the less likely you'll get divorced, according to research from the Wharton School at Pennsylvania University. Why? Older people may have a better idea of what they want in their partners, and their personalities change less over time.

"The big questions are how to balance life across work, leisure and community," Betsey Stevenson, who participated in the research, told The Guardian. "People have a better sense of that in their late 20s and early 30s. When people marry at a younger age, the match may become worse with time."

Therefore, encouraging later marriages could also contribute to a decreased divorce rate.

Employment Status - A study published in American Sociological Review suggests that men who do not have full-time employment are 33 percent more likely to divorce than men with full-time employment.

"Contemporary husbands face higher risk of divorce when they do not fulfill the stereotypical breadwinner role, by being employed full-time," study author Alexandra Killewald, a sociology professor at Harvard University, told TIME.

Interestingly, because Killewald's study is adjusted for income, it indicates that financial factors may not play as much of a role as the husband's employment status. In other words, the husband’s lack of employment creates more stress than money issues do.

"It could be her, it could be him, it could be that unemployment is associated with other stuff like depression, it could be judgment from friends or family or lack of support for the marriage," Killewald said. “These data just don’t tell me that."

Stress Levels - Relationships tend to suffer when one or both partners are stressed out, according to a 2015 study. When the stress comes from external factors—like long work hours or financial problems—it can seep into the relationship. Promoting healthy ways to deal with stress might benefit marriages nationwide.

Infidelity - According to a study from the Austin Institute, infidelity tops the list of cited causes for divorce. If we could find a way to decrease the instances of extramarital affairs, we would probably also lower the divorce rate.

With those factors in mind, we’ve got a pretty clear game plan for fixing the divorce rate in the United States.

We should improve access to education, lower the unemployment rate, encourage young people to wait longer to get married, discourage infidelity, and decrease stress levels. We’ll probably never eliminate divorce entirely—nor should we, as it’s an important right—but addressing the underlying issues would help to lower the percentage of U.S. marriages that end in divorce.