Charlotte Divorce Lawyer Blog
If your parents are divorced, you are at least 40 percent more likely to get divorced than if they are still married. Moreover, if your parents remarried new spouses after divorcing, you are 91 percent more likely to get divorced. Divorce Magazinepublisher Dan Couvrette attributes these statistics to a certain mindset held by children of divorcees – being a witness to your parents’ divorce creates an ambivalence regarding commitment in today’s “disposable society.” Therefore, in the minds of children of divorcees, it is easier to divorce and start over in a new marriage than it is to fix the currently troubled marriage.
Divorce Predictor #3: You argue about finances weekly.
According to the National Marriage Project’s “State of Our Unions” Report for 2009, if you argue with your spouse about finances once per week, your marriage is 30 percent more likely to end in divorce than if you argue with your spouse about finances more infrequently. This report also found that couples with no assets at the beginning of a three-year period are 70 percent more likely to divorce by the end of the three-year period than couples who start with $10,000 in assets. This is because most divorce risk factors (such as age or education level) correlate with poverty.
Divorce Predictor #2: You live in a red state.
According to the National Vital Statistics Report of 2003, if you live in a red state (Republican-leaning), you are 27 percent more likely to get divorced than those who reside in a blue state (Democrat-leaning). The theory behind this statistic is that red state couples tend to traditionally marry younger than blue state couples – and the younger the couple, the more at-risk the marriage is. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the states that perform the median youngest marriages are Utah, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Oklahoma.
Divorce Predictor #1: You are a married American.
If you are a married American, your marriage is between 40 and 50 percent likely to end in divorce. Although the national divorce rate has steadily dropped since peaking at 50 percent in the 1980s, the prevalent public opinion is still that half of all marriages end in divorce. According to The National Marriage Project’s “State of Our Unions” Report for 2009, modern marriages are getting more and more resilient because people are getting better and more careful about picking their significant others.
15 Ways to Predict Divorce
According to a recent article in The Daily Beast, there are quite a few ways to predict whether a marriage is likely to end in divorce, including details as minor as smoking habits of spouses. Researchers who studied marriage success rates across the country have found 15 of the top ways to gauge whether a marriage will stand the test of time. Obviously, nobody can predict the future. But, this is some food for thought.
Autism and Divorce
Historically, media reports and autism advocacy groups have cited a statistic that the divorce rate in families with autistic children is approximately 80 percent. However, a new scientific analysis indicates that this figure is quite inaccurate.
The Center for Autism and Related Disorders at Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore surveyed data from the 2007 National Survey of Children’s Health. After reviewing information from almost 78,000 children, both with and without autism, researchers found that autism had practically no effect on the likelihood that a child would belong to a family with two married parents.
Although research indicates that autism puts extra stress on a marriage, it does not follow logically that these families also have the highest rate of divorce. Researchers anticipate that this study will offer hope to married couples facing a diagnosis of autism in their family.
Charlotte, North Carolina Makes Top 10 in Divorce Rates
According to a recent report in Men’s Health magazine, couples living in Charlotte are among the most likely to be doomed to divorce (#6 Nationally). The report, which ranked the top 100 U.S. cities with the highest rates of divorce, considered multiple factors, including: the rate of failed marriages, the stringency of state divorce laws, the percentage of the population who had divorced, and the number of licensed marriage and family therapists in the cities.
Divorce rates were highest in Cheyenne (Wyoming), Las Vegas, Nevada, and Billings (Montana), followed closely by Reno, Little Rock, Charlotte, and Tulsa. Divorces were least likely to occur in two southern cities: Columbia, South Carolina and El Paso, Texas. However, Riverside, California and Providence, Rhode Island, did not fall far behind in the rankings of the top cities of marital bliss.
According to statistics from 2007, which was the last year for which divorce ratios were calculated, the states of Nevada, Arkansas, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Wyoming have the highest overall divorce rates in the country.
What are Alienation of Affection and Criminal Conversation?
There are four traditional “heart balm torts” that are now only recognized by a handful of states: alienation of affection, criminal conversation, seduction, and breach of promise to marry.
North Carolina is one of seven states that still allows claims for alienation of affection. Alienation of affection laws in this state allow a betrayed spouse to sue a paramour for willfully and maliciously interfering in the couple’s marriage.
A spouse who files an alienation of affection action is asserting that he or she has lost the protected marital right of the affection, society, companionship, and assistance of the other spouse.
The Legal Hurdles of Obtaining a Same-Sex Divorce
Five states and the District of Columbia now allow same-sex marriage and, consequently, same-sex divorce, but same-sex couples who wish to divorce in states that do not recognize their marriages are now facing significant legal hurdles. Many same-sex couples remain in marital limbo while states across the country are struggling to decide their stance on same-sex divorce.
Under the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the United States Constitution, states must generally recognize the laws of other states. For example, opposite-sex marriages and divorces are recognized when a heterosexual couple moves across states lines. However, most states that do not allow same-sex marriage will similarly not recognize a same-sex marriage performed in another state. Some states, like North Carolina, do not allow same-sex marriage and will not legally recognize a same-sex marriage performed in another state. Thus, opponents of same-sex divorce say that allowing these couples to divorce means acknowledging that the marriage was legal initially.
Today, the lesson to be gained from the current debate over gay divorce is that these couples who are legally wed in one state should be careful regarding the state to which they choose to relocate. Under the laws of many states, it takes at least a year to establish residency before filing for divorce. A couple that is refused a same-sex divorce in a state that does not recognize same-sex marriage would have to relocate to reestablish residency in the state that granted their marriage license, which would only further complicate and significantly delay the process.
The Statistics on Motherhood
A recent study conducted by the Pew Research Center offers a fascinating look at the changing demographics of motherhood in the United States by comparing women who gave birth in 2008 with those who gave birth in 1990, on the basis of data collected from the National Center for Health Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau.
The highlights of the study indicate vast changes in the age, race, and marital status of the majority of mothers. First-time mothers today are older and tend to be better educated; more than half of the mothers of newborns in 2008 had at least some college education. The racial dynamics of all mothers has changed dramatically as well, with just over half of births in 2008 being to white women, and a quarter to Hispanic women. Moreover, a quarter of all birth mothers today are foreign-born. Mothers today are less likely to be white, and more likely to be unmarried. In 2008, 41% of births were to unmarried women; a notable increase from 28% of births in 1990.
Researchers note that most Americans are neutral or approving of the majority of the modern trends that have an impact on birth patterns, such as the growing number of women over 40 who have babies and the growing number of women who undergo fertility treatment to have children. Many Americans are trending toward marrying later in life or not marrying at all, contributing toward the increased rate of births outside of marriage. Although Americans have softened slightly in the traditional disapproval of unmarried parenthood, most still agree that it has a negative impact on society.