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Temporary Life Changes and the Timing of Divorce
Peter Fallesen1,2, Richard Breen3
1Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University, SE-106 91, Stockholm, Sweden. peter.fallesen@sofi.su.se.
Demography
|September 15, 2016
Summary
Having a baby with colic, a temporary stressor, can help couples realize relationship quality sooner, potentially leading to earlier divorce if the marriage is unstable. This study explores temporary life changes and marital disruption.
Area of Science:
- Family Studies
- Sociology
- Behavioral Economics
Background:
- Marriage involves inherent risks due to incomplete information about partners and future circumstances.
- Existing research highlights how permanent life changes can trigger divorce.
- The impact of temporary life circumstances on marital stability remains less understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how temporary stressful life events, specifically having a child with infantile colic, influence divorce behavior.
- To extend the understanding of how new information, even from transient situations, affects marital dissolution.
- To test the hypothesis that temporary stressors can accelerate the discernment of relationship quality and subsequent divorce.
Main Methods:
- Development of a theoretical model based on Bayesian updating to formalize the impact of new information on relationship decisions.
- Empirical analysis using longitudinal data from Denmark to observe divorce patterns.
- Statistical examination of the correlation between the incidence of infantile colic and the timing of marital separation.
Main Results:
- The occurrence of infantile colic was found to shorten the time to divorce or marital disruption.
- This effect was observed among couples who were already predisposed to splitting up.
- Temporary stressful events can act as catalysts for marital dissolution, revealing underlying relationship issues more rapidly.
Conclusions:
- Temporary stressful life events, such as infant colic, can expedite divorce by allowing couples to assess relationship quality more quickly.
- The findings suggest that even transient challenges can have significant long-term implications for marital stability.
- This research contributes to understanding the dynamics of relationship dissolution in response to temporary, yet impactful, life circumstances.
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