1. One out of every two marriages ends in divorce.
2. In 1991, only 50.8% of American children were living with a mother and a father. The numbers have worsened since that study.
3. Approximately 4% of American children are living only with their father.
4. The vast majority of children who are raised in a two-parent home will never be poor during childhood. By contrast, the vast majority of children who spend time in a single-parent home will experience poverty.
5. Children from female-headed homes are five times as likely to be poor as children in two-parent families.
6. Four times as many divorced women with children fell under the poverty line than married women with children.
7. Children from disrupted marriages experience greater risk of injury, asthma, headaches, and speech defects than children from intact families.
8. Suicide rates for children of divorce are measurably higher than for children from intact families.
9. Children of divorce were found to be twice as likely as chidren from intact families to drop out of school.
10. Young adults ages 18-22 from disrupted families were found to be twice as likely to have poor relationships with their mothers and/or fathers, and that the effects were still evident 12-22 years after the breakup.
11. Divorced adults, particularly divorced men, experience early health problems to a measurably greater extent than married individuals. Premature death rates for divorced men double that of marriend men from such cuases as cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and strokes.
12. The suicide rate for divorced white men was four times higher than for their married counterparts.
13. Divorced or separated men undergo inpatient or outpatient psychiatric care at a rate of 10 times more than married men. Divorced or separated women’s usage of such care increased fivefold.
The conclusion of the article was that divorce adversely affects children, women, men, and society as a whole.
