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Although divorce rates have been stable or dropping for two decades, Americans seem anxious about the state of marriage. Drawing on the sociology of knowledge and a social constructionist approach to the study of social problems, we examine reasons for this collective anxiety, documenting how the divorce "problem" has been framed by organizations promoting conservative family values. We examine the history of divorce and identify social contexts associated with cyclical claims that divorce reflects a breakdown of the moral order. In the contemporary context, we examine how social science experts are used to portray children as victims of divorce and how such images legitimate the political objectives of specific interest groups and mask underlying issues of gender inequality.
Key Words: divorce, family policy, gender, marriage, social problems, social movements.
In an average year, about 2.4 million marriages and 1.2 million divorces occur in the United States (Kreider & Fields, 2001). Are these high or low numbers for a country with a population of over 286 million people? The answer depends on one's perspective, and that perspective is increasingly shaped by divorce experts who conduct studies, write books, and produce compelling stones for public consumption. In recent years, these experts have included academic social scientists, demographers, clinicians, practitioners, and representatives of religious organizations and political pressure groups. Each has a stake in defining divorce in specific ways, and all compete for precious media exposure in an effort to influence public opinion and affect government policies. In this article, we explore how the divorce "problem" has been constructed within specific historical and cultural contexts, suggesting that recent acceptance of expert advice about the long-term consequences of divorce for children has been facilitated by the rise of morality politics, which we see as a reaction to cultural anxiety caused by women's increasing independence from men.
Clinical psychologist Judith Wallerstein is considered to be one of today's foremost divorce experts, essentially initiating the modern academic debate on the effect of divorce on children with her 1971 study of 60 divorced families and their 131 children in Marin County, California, which was published with co-author Joan Kelly in 1980 as Surviving the Breakup: How Children and Parents Cope with Divorce. Her involvement in the academic debate has continued to...