Friday, July 12, 2002
Study finds that divorce doesn’t necessarily equate to happiness
A story published today by the Chicago Sun Times reports that a new study conducted by University of Chicago researchers revealed that divorce doesn't necessarily make adults happy, but toughing it out in an unhappy marriage until it turns around just might.
They identified happy and unhappy spouses, culled from a national database. Of the unhappy partners who divorced, about half were happy five years later. But unhappy spouses who stuck it out often did better: About two-thirds were happy five years later.
''In popular discussion, in scholarly literature, the assumption has always been that if a marriage is unhappy, if you get a divorce, it is likely you will be happier than if you stayed married,'' said David Blankenhorn of the Institute for American Values, a think tank on the family. ''This is the first time this has been tested empirically, and there is no evidence to support this assumption.''
About 19 percent of those divorced had happily remarried within five years.
The most-troubled marriages reported the biggest turnarounds. Of the most discontented, about 80 percent were happy five years later, said Linda Waite, the U. of C. sociologist who headed the research team.
Waite, author of The Case for Marriage, analyzed data on 5,232 married adults from the National Survey of Families and Households. It included 645 who were unhappy. The adults in the national sample were analyzed through 13 measures of psychological well-being. Within five years, 167 of the unhappy were divorced or separated, and 478 stayed married.
On average, divorce didn't reduce symptoms of depression, raise self-esteem or increase a sense of mastery compared with those who stayed married, the study found. Results were controlled for race, age, gender and income.
Staying married did not tend to trap unhappy spouses in violent relationships.
Those who worked on their marriages rarely did so with the help of a counselor. But when they did, they typically went to faith-based counselors. Men, particularly, were ''very suspicious of anyone who wanted money to solve personal problems,'' Waite said.
Those who stayed married also generally disapproved of divorce, Waite said. They cited concerns about children, religious beliefs and a fear that divorce would bring its own set of problems.
