The divorce cycle in cross-national perspective : results from the fertility and family surveys

Abstract

We use data on women’s first marriages from the Fertility and Family Surveys to analyse the intergenerational transmission of divorce―the divorce cycle―across 18 countries and seek explanations for the cross-national variation from macro-level characteristics. Our results show that women whose parents have divorced have a significantly higher risk of divorce in 17 countries. Furthermore, using multilevel models, we find cross-national variation in these associations. This variation is negatively associated with the share of women in each cohort who experienced parental divorce and the levels of female labour market participation. We conclude that increases in the number of peers who experience parental divorce weakens its signal of low marital commitment that is passed to children of divorce, thus weakening the divorce cycle.