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This paper is a preliminary report of a study of adjustment in marriage which has two somewhat unique features: It is a comparison of marriages ending in divorce with marriages outsiders judged to be the most happily married known to them and secondly, the subjects are fairly representative of the general population whereas those of previous marital prediction studies have been predominantly white-cellar, middle class and highly educated. The paper will deal with four topics: the nature of the sample; the criteria of adjustment; whether or not divorced persons are good risks in subsequent marriages; and marital prediction items. It was expected that the divorced would have shorter marriages than the happily married. A larger per cent of divorced than happily married were married for each five year period up to and including 15-19, and a larger per cent of happily married than divorced for each five-year period beginning with 20-24. The per cent of divorced and happily married whose marriages were of less than ten years' duration was respectively 56.0 and 38.6.

The present article is concerned only with the connection between business cycles and frequency of divorces. The Bureau of Statistics of the city of Amsterdam has calculated the correlation between various economic indices and the marriage rate, for the years 1830-19 14. These data indicate an undeniable positive correlation between economic conditions and the frequency of marriages. This result cannot be interpreted as indicating that the tendency to matrimony in periods of prosperity is greater than in years of economic depression but rather that the possibilities of contracting a marriage are more favorable during a boom than during a depression. The effort in the present research paper is to trace a connection between business cycles and divorce similarly does not mean that the author considers economic conditions as the principal cause of divorce. In many cases, economic factors may have nothing to do with the inner cause of failure in marriage; in some, it merely predisposes towards failure; in others, it truly may be "the cause."

Remarriage as a means of rectifying a mistake in divorce has been given less attention. Instances of such remarriage are commoner than is sometimes supposed. The author's attention was drawn to the subject by a number of clients of the Institute of Family Relations who got divorces, afterwards decided that they were happier together than they were apart, and remarried each other successfully. This paper reports on 200 such cases. Some of these are decidedly complicated, various other marriages having served to embroider the main pattern. Of the 200 cases here reported of remarriage of the same persons, 96 were happy on the second attempt; 29 were doubtful and 75 definitely unhappy. The mean length of first marriage was 5.1 years, nearly one third lasted less than two years, while nearly one fourth were of at least ten years' duration before the divorce. There is very little relationship between the length of marriage prior to divorce and the length of intermission prior to remarriage. A short marriage may be followed by long separation or vice versa. One might suppose that those longest married would require the shortest time to discover that their divorce was a mistake; that there would be, in other words, a negative correlation between first marriage and intermission. This is not found. The correlation is positive, though small.

This paper examines the proposition advanced by some commentators that divorce petitioning in England and Wales fluctuates in accordance with the changing real value of legal aid. Direct evidence, from divorce figures and details of legal aid provision, is examined and shown not to fit the hypothesis. Indirect evidence drawn from Magistrates' Court proceedings and income provision by the National Assistance Board also fails to support the proposition. It is concluded that the proposition is false, and that increased divorce petitioning reflects more fundamental social changes than amendments to legal aid provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the recommendations of 1956's Committee on Marriage and Divorce Statistics, the 1957's Committee, in consultation with the presidents of the regional societies, elected its auxiliary members. Nominees from the Midwest and Southwestern Sociological Societies were unable to accept because of other commitments or interests. It is hoped that next year's committee will enlist the aid of two members of these societies. Two motions were brought before the Committee, (1) That the Committee prepare a full report on the feasibility of a 1960 Census test designed to test the completeness and accuracy of registration of marriages and divorces in the registration area states. Also that his report be submitted to the Council well in advance of the Business Meeting so that they might reconsider their action upon the proposal heretofore. (2) That the Committee prepare a resolution directed to marriage and divorce statistics in particular, but so worded as to affirm the position of the membership of the American Sociological Society on the question of race-or-color as a statistical item in all broadly designed programs.

The work of the Committee on Marriage and Divorce Statistics of the American Sociological Association in recent years has been directed toward qualifying all states for admission to the national registration areas for marriages and divorces. The achievement of this objective involves getting both administrative and legislative changes made in those states which do not have central registration files of marriages and divorces or where the necessary legislation is available, which have not adopted the procedures essential to maintaining the required accuracy and completeness of marriage and divorce reporting. The Committee has secured the appointment of state representatives in states where reporting systems are deficient in one respect or another. These state representatives work in close cooperation with state registrars of vital statistics and with organizations and individuals interested in better family statistics. This procedure has been effective but much still remains to be done. Most state legislatures have not met this year but will be in session during 1965.

The incidence and patterning of divorce in Australia differs substantially from that in the United States: Australians resort to divorce less frequently than do Americans, and generally only after a much longer duration of marriage, it is suggested that this arises from differences between the two countries in (1) the availability of divorce (in both existential and normative senses), (2) the availability of alternative "remedies" for marital disharmony, and (3) the extent of marital disharmony itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fundamental weakness of most divorce studies in which duration of marriage has significance is the use of de jure (time of decree) rather than de facto (time of separation) in formation. Using the scant data in the literature and an admittedly crude measurement -- the average of durations of marriages ending in divorce -- the interval from marriage to separation is found to vary from area to area, from time to time, and from one population class to another. Couples in their first marriage, in higher socio-economic groups generally, who live in middle-sized population areas and have children, show longer durations than the rest. Legal structure and other factors also have an influence. A study of 1957 Wisconsin divorces supports these conclusions. Moreover, Wisconsin marriages are not found to be breaking up any sooner than they were two generations ago. American couples whose marriages end in divorce very soon reach a parting of the ways, and the more refined and complete facts have always supported the popular belief that "the first year is the hardest" for them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By means of "record linkage," it was possible to measure and compare the phenomenon of premarital pregnancy across three widely divergent Western cultures: Utah, with its very conservative sex norms; Indiana, which is approximately average for the United States; and Denmark, which typifies the rather liberal sex codes of Scandinavia. Not only did Denmark show the highest incidence of premarital pregnancy, and Utah the lowest, but the premaritally pregnant couples in Denmark tended to take their time about getting married, and tended not to let the pregnancy affect them negatively to the point of divorce (in comparison with those from the other two cultures). Thus, sexual permissiveness was found to be associated with higher incidences but lower negative effects of premarital pregnancy. Nevertheless, not every aspect of the phenomenon was culturally relevant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The chief purpose of the report on the need for nationwide marriage and divorce statistics published in the June 1958 issue of the journal "American Sociological Review," was to give scholarly expression to the sociological implications of the need for, and the value of these data. It was also intended that this publication would help to "sell" a program of state registration and national statistics to budgetary and other persons in public office. This report, departed from its title and purpose, being largely a compilation of procedural, technical, and "role" problems intermingled with selected historical items, almost all of which are available in the bibliography appended herewith. The following commentary is merely an attempt to clarify some of the issues raised concerning adequate registration and statistics of marriage and divorce. The collection of data for the first two nationwide reports on marriage and divorce was instigated by a theologian Samuel W. Dike, and the New England Divorce Reform League, whose dynamic influence aroused the support of persons in high office. Since 1906, however, this field of statistics has languished and sociologists, unlike the reform group, have shown little disposition to rally as a profession in the cause, although they have the major interest in these data. The U.S. is one of the few civilized nations which lack a program of detailed statistics on marriages and divorces.

This article treats differences in marriage patterns of persons in the United States according to their educational level. The marriage patterns discussed include trends in the number of marriages, age at marriage, stability of marriage, resident and nonresident marriages, number of times married, broken marriages, and bachelorhood and spinsterhood. The source material used for the study comes from decennial censuses but most of it is from a special study of about 9,000 persons who married between 1947 and 1954. For this study, one of the regular monthly surveys in which employment and other demographic data are collected, covered a sample of more than 20,000 households which were representative of the civilian noninstitutional population of the United States. The high level of marriage rates and the decline in divorce rates after World War II are doubtless caused by a great variety of factors, many of which are imperfectly understood. The study revealed that men in middle and upper economic strata tend to have not only a high amount of education but also a high marriage rate, an above-average age at marriage, and a low divorce rate. Persons who discontinue their education before they complete high school tend also to have low incomes and high rates of marriage dissolution by separation, divorce, or widowhood.

This article presents the findings of a study of changes in values and attitudes of high school juniors and seniors toward family relations. Previous research on changes in the family has established two general facts, first there has been a large increase in the divorce rate over the last several decades and, second, the family has been steadily surrendering functions to other institutions, especially the state, the school, and economic institutions. Moreover, the increase in the divorce rate has brought much interest in whether the family is becoming severely disorganized. Further, the loss of functions is believed to be associated with changes in values and attitudes toward the home and family. However, there is little rigorous research on the question of change in values and attitudes toward the family, and the solution to the problem is difficult to glean from theoretical literature. First, most of the theoretical literature is concerned with very long-term trends and only passing reference is made to changes in values and attitudes toward the family in many cases. Second, there is some difference of opinion among authorities on how particular types of attitudes have changed.

This article focuses on family stability as a cause of childlessness. A sound social and psychological upbringing of children is predicated upon a wholesome family relationship. The impact of divorce upon children, therefore, has always been a matter of great concern, for it is generally agreed that the overall effect of divorce is detrimental to them. On the other hand, the deprivations and emotional harm to children who live with parents unmindful of their responsibilities or continually in conflict with one another is no less important a matter. Not much of a statistical nature is known about the children of divorced or separated families, their ages, their social origins, their educational and occupational attainments. However, there are some who contend, principally on logical grounds, that children themselves are a factor in precipitating divorce or desertion, in that they may create an emotional, social and economic strain on the parents, or they may be merely another point of disagreement between them.

There is a widespread interest in obtaining comprehensive statistics of marriage and divorce in the U.S. It is of interest to compare the social characteristics of recently married persons as these appear in the sample survey, Current Population Survey (CPS), and in the available registration records of the National Office of Vital Statistics (NOVS) of the Public Health Service, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Since only a limited number of the states in the U.S. provide detailed tabulations from registration records, it is evident that data for these states may differ significantly from the data for nonreporting states. The sample survey provides a rough check on the representativeness of available registration data. The use of the CPS as a criterion against which to measure the NOVS data, however, is limited by its own incomplete coverage and sampling variability. A few summary questions may also be raised about the two groups of data before making more detailed comparisons.

It is desirable to know not only what proportion of marriages are terminating in divorce, but also how long these marriages have lasted. In effect, temporal changes in the average duration of marriage may signify increases or decreases in the number of currently divorced persons, even though the percentage of marriages ultimately ending in divorce were to remain constant. Also, since divorce is most common in the early years of married life, the percentage of divorces with and without children hinges, in good part, on the duration of those marriages. Indeed, there are few aspects of divorce statistics which do not relate to the duration of marriage, and because of the obvious importance of the subject it is understandable that published duration data, or references to the data, are routinely incorporated in family texts. Relatively complete the U.S. national figures are available for the periods 1867-1886 and 1887-1906, and for the years 1922 through 1932. The 1948, 1949, and 1950 Divorce Reports issued by the U.S. National Office of Vital Statistics include duration figures for a little over one-quarter of the states.

Research relevant to the question of whether sexual intimacies before marriage are related to the success or failure of marriage is scarce and inconclusive. Studies reveal that marriage is more successful where there has been no premarital sexual sexual-intercourse. Yet, most of the scholars ex- press certain cautions and qualifications. Furthermore, some researchers not support the theory that coitus before marriage has an adverse effect on the sexual relationships after marriage." It was for the purpose of throwing additional light on this problem that the present study was undertaken. The focus has been upon the phenomenon of premarital pregnancy as a factor in divorce, viewing the latter as an index of marriage failure. In an earlier article by the senior author, it was reported that premarital conception was involved in approximately twenty per cent of all first births within marriage, and that disproportionately higher percentages were associated with the depression marriages of 1929-31, a voting age at marriage, a non-religious wedding, and a laboring occupation. So far as the data reveal, there has been a general increase in divorce rate over time, with the depression marriages showing the highest rate of all. Positive relationships were found between divorce and the following factors, young age at marriage, wide age differences between the mates, urban residence, unskilled occupation, nonreligious wedding, and remarriage.

In Philadelphia, where city and county are coterminous, there are three separate courts having jurisdiction over marriage and family matters. The Orphans Court has jurisdiction over the issuance of marriage licenses and their custody; the Court of Common Pleas has jurisdiction in matters pertaining to divorce, annulment, and legal separation; while the Municipal Court has jurisdiction over virtually all other family areas, including desertion and non-support, and child custody. Since 1950 was a Census year, the Municipal Court Statistician, Mr. Frank S. Drown, acted upon the suggestion that the data on desertion and non support for this year be assembled in greater detail, thus adding some new dimensions to his material. The divorce data were procured from the divorce testimony of cases heard in Court Number Six, one of the seven Common Pleas Courts in Philadelphia which handle divorce actions. In the assignment of the cases to the courts a mechanical numbering device is used which assures the randomness of cases among the courts.

The article focuses on the impact of economic factors on marital stability. It states that the economic position of a particular class is relevant to the rate of divorces, therefore lower economic classes experiences higher rate of divorces than upper classes. It also states that the rates of marital conflict for specific occupations like psychiatrists, radio repairmen vary highly within any socio-economic level. It was also found that the failure of male head of the family to play his role in terms of earning results in conflict and explanations. It is possible that this type of economic strain is greater in lower classes of society, therefore divorce rates among negros are greater than the Americans.

The article presents a discussion on the hypothesis which states that socio-economic level is one of the variables in the adjustments of adolescents to their parents. It states that adolescents are better adjusted in high socio-economic level as compared to the lower one and these differences in adjustments are not explained by other factors associated with socio-economic level and adolescent-parent adjustment. The other significant factors associated with the adolescent-parent adjustment are residence, family size, broken homes, mother's employment status and adolescent's sex.

Vital statistics on marriage and divorce in the U.S. are fragmentary and inadequate. Yet, generalizations are sometimes made which the limited data hardly warrant. At the same time, it is also true that even the scattered data available are not always fully utilized. This article summarizes the history and present status of vital statistics on marriage and divorce, and some of the plans and problems in this field. The first federal report on marriages and divorces in the U.S. covered the years 1867-1886, and was practically complete as regards divorces, but thoroughly incomplete and unsatisfactory so far as marriages are concerned. It presented numbers of marriages for about two-thirds of the counties, numbers of divorces by county, and various detailed divorce statistics, such as causes, and duration of marriages, by state and year. The next federal report, published in 1908-1909 by the Bureau of the Census, dealt primarily with the 1887-1906 period, and also summarized some of the 1867-1886 data. For 1887-1906 it included numbers of marriages for more than nine-tenths of the counties of the U.S., numbers of divorces for almost all counties, and some detailed divorce statistics by state and year.

The war and postwar boom in divorce in the U.S. has released a torrent of popular articles on what is and what is wrong with American marriages. A recurrent theme in most of these articles is the effect of the rising tide of divorce on children and on the future stability of the American family. And yet, statistical documentation is woefully inadequate. This is especially true with regard to children affected by divorce, since few data been available since 1932, and even those for earlier years were very limited in scope. However, a great deal of work over a period of years will be needed before the divorce statistics program can reach the stage of development already attained for mortality and natality statistics. There remains some confusion of terminology in the statistics reported by several states. For example, the terms "plaintiff" and "party to whom the decree is granted" are used interchangeably. Also, there is variation in the specification of information available. The best example of this concerns children. Of the 23 states which collect this type of information, 8 ask for the number of minor children' affected by the decree, 5 for the number of children affected by the decree, and in the other 10 states the item relates to children or minors but is phrased some-what differently.

The article sets forth some of the differences between the social and economic characteristics of persons in the United States who are in their first marriages and of those who have remarried. Among married women in 1940, Negroes had about twice as large a proportion remarried as native white women. The difference by color was even greater in 1910. Only about one-fourth of those who obtained a divorce in the five years prior to the survey date had not remarried during the period, according to a comparison of the survey data with statistics based on divorce records. Persons who had married for the first time during the previous two years were very much more likely to have doubled up with relatives or others than were persons who had remarried during those two years. Women married only once who had lived with their husband less than two years were only one-half as likely to have dependent children in the home as women who had remarried during that time. Nearly one-half of the married women who were in their first year of marriage were in the labor force, but the corresponding proportion was only one-fifth for those married 5 to 9 years.

The discussion concerns a pilot study of the postdivorce adjustment of 100 urban mothers, and the field problems encountered in that study as well as in a subsequent study based on a still larger sample as of June 1949. In spite of the problems, the paucity of field research in this area seemed to justify a presentation of some of the data. The earlier study, completed in March 1948, formed the basis of a later investigation of approximately 450 urban mothers, aged 20-38, who have undergone a divorce. Attempts to solve the earlier field problems have restructured the research design and the focus of several hypotheses. This article touches on the following three aspects of the research namely the shaping of divorce research by American value orientations and the technical problems of field research in postdivorce adjustment and some of the data tentatively drawn from the present sample of 450 divorced urban mothers as well as the earlier sample of one hundred. A fairly diligent search of professional journals since 1935 discloses no more than perhaps three or four published investigations which could be categorized as dealing with adjustment to divorce.

Although marriage prediction tests are hardly new to sociological thinking or practice, they seem recently to have been applied on a much larger scale than ever before. Their increased use may be attributed to several different factors: increased interest and enrollment in college courses dealing with engagement and marital problems; widespread publicity in popular magazine articles and in books. Effective marriage prediction tests would have an enormous practical value is indubitable. Current divorce rates are generally considered to be alarmingly high; and any technique which might help to weed the doomed marriages before they were actually consummated would be enthusiastically welcomed by most front line participants in these marriages, as well as by innumerable members of our society who are less directly concerned with the longevity of specific marriages. The validity of marriage prediction scales may only be determined by submitting them to proper validation procedures, and thereby deriving an estimate of their practical value.

Some social aspects of Australian business cycles were investigated by correlating the cyclical fluctuations in various series relating to soda! phenomena with Wilson's index of Australian business cycles, which was carried forward to 1939 for the purpose. Evidence was obtained of a marked influence of economic cycles upon the marriage rate and the birth rate. The influence of business cycles upon marriage rates is lagged one year, and it remains significant, though weaker, with a lag of two years. In the case of the birth rate, the relationship becomes more marked when birth rates are lagged one or two years. No relationship is apparent between business cycles and illegimate birth rates, but a reasonably significant negative correlation was found between pre-nuptial conceptions and business cycles. The relationship was not significant when the pre-nuptial conception rate was lagged one or two years behind the business cycle index. High positive correlations between business cycles and divorce rates were found when divorce rates were lagged one or two years; the relationship is not significant for synchronous years. A dose relationship was found between days lost through industrial disputes and business cycles, and an even closer relationship appeared to hold between business cycles and trades union membership. Membership of employers' organizations towed no relationship to business cycles. Business cycles arc significantly related to expenditure per head by State Governments on education, when the latter lags two years behind business cycles. A barely significant positive correlation was obtained between hospital admissions and business cycles, for synchronous years; the relationship was not significant when hospital admissions were lagged one or two years. Mortality rates are closely and positively related to business cycles for synchronous years, but no relationship appeared when a lag of one or two-years was assumed. A similar relationship was found between infant mortality and business cycles. Maternal mortality bore a slight but significant, negative relationship to business cycles with a lag of two years only. Business cycles appeared to exert a marked influence on the number of convictions for serious crime, but only with a lag of one or two years. Convictions for drunkenness were also influenced by business cycles, in this case with no lag. Suicides were not found to be closely related to business cycles. Admissions to mental hospitals were found, to bear a close positive relationship to business cycles, with no evidence of a lag. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a report of the committee on marriage and divorce statistics. This Committee has continued to promote and improve the coverage of state and national registration of marriage and divorce statistics This year the Committee has made an unusually vigorous effort to get the necessary legislation enacted in the various states. In order to achieve this goal, state representatives have been appointed in 32 states which in one respect or another do not have satisfactory central files of either marriage or divorce records. These state representatives have contacted state registrars of vital statistics and legislative representatives with a view of getting some specific legislation or other needed action taken to improve the completion and quality of marriage and divorce statistics. A detailed statement of reports from 32 states is available on request. As of this date 40 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands maintain central files on both marriage and divorce records, three additional states, Indiana, Minnesota, and West Virginia, maintain central files of marriage records only. Seven states do not maintain central files of either marriage or divorce records.

The article presents the report of the committee on marriage and divorce statistics. No money was available for committee expenses, hence the only meetings held were in connection with the participation of members in other meetings. Four members met during the Public Health Conference on Records and Statistics in Washington, March 12-16, and five during the Society's meetings in Detroit, September 7 and 8. At the first meeting, it was agreed that the early establishment of Marriage Registration Area (MRA) and the establishment of a Divorce and Annulment Registration Area (DARA). The most important question discussed by the committee was what action could be taken to further the contemplated MRA and DARA programs. It was agreed that these programs have lagged because of lack of support at national and state levels, and that sociologists must accept part of the blame because until recently they have taken a rather lackadaisical attitude. There was agreement that support was needed at the national level and the state level, with the majority feeling that the latter was more important than the former.