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Taylor Singleton
Professor K. Dorhout
ENGL 1001-095
November 25th, 2014

Divorce Law Reform in America

Nowadays, divorce does not have as much meaning as it did thirty or forty years ago.
People go into marriages thinking, "If it doesn't work out, we can always get a divorce." Divorce
rates are through the roof: about one third of first marriages end within the first ten years and
about half end within twenty years (Hawkins). Also, those who remarry after their first divorce
have even higher rates of divorce and separation. Actions need to be taken in order to make
getting a divorce harder. Divorce negatively effects the children of the couple. Stricter laws
could help decrease unnecessary divorce among those with minor children. Unnecessary divorce
is constituted as a divorce over problems that are not harmful to you and that can be fixed.
Creating laws that forced couples to go to counseling before receiving a divorce could potentially
save marriages. Stricter laws may make couples think harder about getting married; instead of
couples getting married with the mentality that if things do not work out you can just get a
divorce. The "no-fault" divorce laws give people the ability to just walk out. With these laws in
place, the already high divorce rate has doubled. Divorce law reforms would save the
government billions. A new single-parent family with children can cost the government $20,000
to $30,000 a year. That is $33 billion to $112 billion a year total in just divorce-related socialservice subsidies and lost revenue (Wetzstein).

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Witnessing the loss of love between parents, watching parents brutally fight over custody,
constantly switching from one parents house to the other, and always having one parent absent
while living with the other these are all common experiences the average child of divorced
parents has to go through, and none of them are easy. Studies show that children with divorced
parents are two to three times more likely to have psychological, social, behavioral, and
educational problems (Hawkins). On average, children of divorce have a life span five years
shorter than children whose parents stayed together (Wetzstein). A study done by Pennsylvania
State University professors Paul Amato and Alan Booth stated that if familial stability today had
the same level of family stability as they did in 1960 then there would be 750,000 fewer children
repeating grades, 1.2 million fewer school suspensions, about 500,000 fewer acts of teenage
delinquency, about 600,000 fewer children receiving therapy and 70,000 fewer suicides every
year (Wetzstein).
Over one million children suffer the divorce of their parents each year. Also, half of the
children born this year to parents who are married will see their parents divorce before they turn
eighteen (Fagan and Rector). In order to reduce the number of children who are negatively
affected by divorce each year, Coalition for Divorce Reform has proposed the Parental Divorce
Reduction Act. The goal of the Act is to reduce unnecessary divorce among couples with minor
children. The Act requires parents of minor children to attend four to eight hours of face-to-face
divorce education classes taught by a certified instructor. The class educates the couple on how
divorce effects children and adults. The class also provides the spouses with opportunities to
develop skills in communication, parenting, conflict resolution, money management, and
overcoming infidelity to help strengthen the marriage. After completing the required amount of
classes, the parents have to go through an eight month waiting period before they can file for a

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divorce. All parents must complete the class and the waiting period, unless a spouse committed
domestic violence against the other spouse or children, was convicted of a crime or sexual
offense against the other spouse or a child, was sentenced to five or more years in prison, is
addicted to drugs or alcohol and refuses to seek help, or has abandoned the other spouse eighteen
months prior to filing for divorce. The Parental Divorce Reduction Act has only been put in
place in a few states, but the Coalition for Divorce Reform is working hard to make the Act
present in other states.
Properly educating individuals before they get married will most likely lead to a decline
in divorce rates. Only about one-third of couples in the United States invest in formal premarital
education (Hawkins 216). Practitioners have observed that ten to fifteen percent of couples who
take premarital classes end up calling off the wedding because they believe the marriage will not
be successful (Hawkins 220). Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, Oklahoma, South
Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia all provide incentives for couples taking
premarital classes by discounting the price of their marriage license. These premarital classes
teach couples critical skills including communication and how to deal with anger and jealousy.
Healthy relationships are based on open and honest communication, and premarital counseling
can help with developing these skills. "People are not born with good communication skills and
most people never learn such skills," says Mark Baer, a family-law attorney. "Since most
marriages fail due to communication issues, I would say that this is an excellent reason to
participate in premarital counseling." (Seldon) Premarital education programs can help stop
divorce by helping couples discover if they are right for each other before they tie the knot.
Many divorces in America are unnecessary. Research in the United States documents that
nearly half of divorces in America come from low-distress or low-conflict relationships and are

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hard to distinguish from happy marriages. Studies show that individuals who did not divorce
ended up happier than those who did divorce. Also, unhappily married couples who stayed
together found that five years later they were happy again (Hawkins).
Most of the reasons individuals give for divorce are minor and can be easily fixed
through counseling. A recently completed national survey shows that the most common reasons
for divorce are lack of commitment (seventy-three percent), too much arguing (fifty-six percent),
infidelity (fifty-five percent), marrying too young (forty-six percent), unrealistic expectations
(forty-five percent), lack of equality in the relationship (forty-four percent), and domestic
violence (twenty-nine percent) (Hawkins 223). Many divorces are the result of problems in the
relationship that can be solved. In a study done by William Doherty, professor of Family Social
Science and Director of the Citizen Professional Center at the University of Minnesota, he asked
individuals and couples (both spouses) in the final stages of divorce if they thought their
marriage could be saved. Twenty-five percent of the individuals and ten percent of the couples
said yes, their marriage could be saved with hard work. Also, thirty percent of those individuals
ten percent of the couples showed interest in any available reconciliation services (Hawkins
223). In similar surveys, ten to fifty percent of divorced couples stated that they wish they would
have worked harder to save their marriage (Hawkins 223). According to this information, public
policy should be more geared towards helping couples who are considering divorce to carefully
think about their decision and work towards possibly repairing their relationship. Requiring
everyone who is filing for divorce, not just the parents who are filing, to attend realistic and
sensitive reconciliation classes would be beneficial in reducing the amount of divorces occurring
in the United States. Combining improvements to public policy and also encouraging proper
marriage education courses would potentially lead to a decrease in divorce rates.

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Arguing about money is the number one cause of divorce, according to Sonya Britt, a
Kansas State University researcher. Couples who argue about money in the early stages of their
marriage are more likely to get divorce, regardless of their income, debt or other finical factors.
Jeffrey Dew, co-writer of Examining the Relationship Between Financial Issues and Divorce
said:
We all have deeply held beliefs about the best way to use money (e.g., use money for
status, use money for security, etc.) Often these beliefs come from the family in which we
grew up. Sometimes spouses' beliefs differ and so they come into conflict. You might
imagine a spouse who feels that money is best used for status married to someone who
feels that money is best used for security. This couple would then probably have more
conflict.
According Britt, assistant professor of family studies and human services and program director
of personal financial planning at Kansas State University, arguments about money are often
harsher than other marital arguments and tend to take longer to recover from than any other
argument. Financial arguments lead to a decrease in relationship satisfaction which will, in most
cases, lead to a divorce. It is important that the government encourages or requires couples to go
to a financial planner as part of their premarital counseling. If couples are educated on finances,
they can agree on how to handle their money efficiently which will reduce the amount of
arguments over money.
The Second Chances Act is an act created to help minimize the number of divorces in
America and has recently been proposed in many states. The act was developed by William
Doherty (University of Minnesota) and Leah Ward Sears (former chief justice of the Georgia
Supreme Court). The Second Chances Act extends the waiting period for divorce to a minimum

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of one year, offers a notification letter spouses can use to inform their spouse that their marriage
is in trouble, and also provides high-quality education on reconciliation and is required for
parents with minor children. Recent research shows that extending the waiting period for filing
divorce will directly decrease divorce rates. Forty-six out of the fifty states have a waiting period
of less than six months and ten of those states have no waiting period at all. The United States
has some of the shortest waiting periods compared to other countries around the world. In parts
of Europe the waiting period can be up to as long as three years. In Italy, the waiting period is
three years and there were only 53,806 divorces in 2011; compared to the United States where
the waiting period is much shorter and the divorce rate is much higher, at 877,000 divorces in
2011. (Gualtieri and Guarneri) The act also provides couples who are considering divorce with
information on the benefits of avoiding divorce, help with reconciliation and information on
when the risk domestic violence should rule out reconciliation. Exceptions to the act are made
only when the spouse committed domestic violence against the other spouse or children, was
convicted of a crime or sexual offense against the other spouse or child, was sentenced to five or
more years in prison, is addicted to drugs or alcohol and refuses to seek help, or has abandoned
the other spouse eighteen months prior to filing for divorce.
If divorce reform laws pass and decrease the rate of divorces in America it could
potentially save billions of dollars in government aid. The average newly divorced single-parent
family with children can cost the government $20,000 to $30,000 in financial aid per year
(Wetzstein). That adds up to a total of $33 billion to $112 billion a year in divorce and social
service related government aid. These enormous amounts of aid are collected from mainly
taxpayers in the form of income taxes and corporate taxes. One study done by Benjamin Scafidi,
director of the Economics of Education Policy Center at Georgia College & State University,

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estimated the public cost to taxpayers of divorce in the United States is $122 million a year. In an
interview done by the Washington Post with Chris Gersten, he stated, If states pass the
coalitions legislative model that aims at cutting divorce rates by a third in five years, the savings
to taxpayers will be pretty dramatic. Retired Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward
Sears and University of Minnesota Professor William J. Doherty wrote Even a modest
reduction in the United States divorce rate likely would benefit 400,000 children and save
taxpayers significant sums. Overall, the decrease in divorce rates through the use of divorce law
reform, could leave a little more money in taxpayers pockets when it comes times to pay their
income and corporation taxes.
Every thirty-six seconds in America there is a divorce. That adds up to about 2,400
divorces a day, 16,800 a week, and around 876,000 per year (Ivrin). In 1960, the United States
Census reported that only one point eight percent of men and two point six percent of women
were divorced. As of 2011, the rate had increased to nine percent of men and eleven percent of
women divorced (Isrealsen-Hartley). These numbers are unacceptable and will only continue to
increase unless there is a dramatic reform to divorce laws. Waiting periods for filing need to be
longer, no-fault divorce needs to be eliminated, and the amount of required premarital and
reconciliation education needs to be increased. New acts including the Parental Divorce
Reduction Act and the Second Chances Act have been proposed in many states, but not yet
passed. When parents with minor children divorce it can negatively impact the children forever.
In order to prevent this many new reforms, including the Parental Divorce Reduction Act,
require parents to complete hours of divorce and reconciliation education classes. Premarital
classes should also be promoted, they are proven to create stronger marriages or stop marriages
from happening that might end in divorce. Also, divorce reform could help the general public

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and government not just those who are divorcing; it is estimated that if divorce rates are cut
down by one third then taxpayers will see a pretty decent drop in taxes. Divorce is not always the
right answer and through the help of the government divorce law reforms that implement
education and waiting period many marriages and families could be saved.

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Work Cited
Crouch, John. It does not have to be this way! Divorce Reform. Americans for Divorce
Reform. N. date. Web. 29 Oct. 2014.
Dew, Jeffery and Britt, Sonya and Huston, Sandra. Examining the Relationship Between
Financial Issues and Divorce. Family Relations, 61: 615628. Print
Doherty, William J. and Sears, Leah Ward. Delaying divorce to save marriages. The
Washington Post. The Washington Post, 20 Oct. 2011. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
Fagan, Patrick F. and Rector, Robert. The Effects of Divorce on America. The Heritage
Foundation. The Heritage Foundation, 5 June 2000. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
Gersten, Chris. The Parental Divorce Reduction Act. Divorce Reform. Coalition for Divorce
Reform, 2001-2005. Web. 29 Oct. 2014.
Gonzlez-Val, Rafael, and Miriam Marcn. "Unilateral Divorce Versus Child Custody And
Child Support In The U.S." Journal Of Economic Behavior & Organization 81.2 (2012):
613-643. Print.
Gualtieri, Giancarlo and Guarneri, Antonella. Separations and divorces in Italy. Istat. Istat, 27
May 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2014.
Hawkins, Alan J. "A Proposal For A Feasible, First-Step, Legislative Agenda For Divorce
Reform." BYU Journal Of Public Law 26.2 (2012): 215-228. Print.
Israelsen-Hartley, Sara. Reforming Divorce: Changing laws to preserve families Deseret
News. Deseret News, 14 July 2012. Web. 29 Oct. 2014.

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Ivrin, McKinley. 32 Shocking Divorce Statistics. Family Law Blog. N.p., 30 Oct. 2012. Web.
18 Nov. 2014.
Jacques, Stephanie. Researcher finds correlation between financial arguments, decreased
relationship satisfaction. Kent State University. Kent State University, 12 July 2013.
Web. 20 Nov. 2014.
National Marriage and Divorce Rate Trends. Chart. National Vital Statistics System. Center
for Disease Control and Prevention. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
Seldon, Laura. Premarital Counseling: The Pros and Cons. Huffington Post. Huffington Post, 8
Aug. 2013. Web. 19 Nov. 2014.
Wetzstein, Cheryl. Divorce reform could save billions in government aid. The Washington
Times. The Washington Times, 15 Aug. 2011. Web. 29 Oct. 2014.