Divorce in cooperatively breeding long-tailed tits: a consequence of inbreeding avoidance?

The decision of whether to divorce a breeding partner between reproductive attempts can significantly affect individual fitness. In this paper, we report that 63% of surviving pairs of long-tailed tits Aegithalos caudatus divorced between years. We examine three likely explanations for the high divorce rate in this cooperative breeder. The 'better option' hypothesis predicts that divorce and re-pairing increases an individual's reproductive success. However, divorcees did not secure better partners or more helpers and there was no improvement in their reproductive success following divorce. The 'inbreeding avoidance' hypothesis predicts that females should disperse from their family group to avoid breeding with philopatric sons. The observed pattern of divorce was consistent with this hypothesis because, in contrast to the usual avian pattern, divorce was typical for successful pairs (81%) and less frequent in unsuccessful pairs (36-43%). The 'forced divorce' hypothesis predicts that divorce increases as the number of competitors increases. The pattern of divorce among failed breeders was consistent with this hypothesis, but it fails to explain the overall occurrence of divorce because divorcees rarely re-paired with their partners' closest competitors. We discuss long-tailed tits' unique association between divorce and reproductive success in the context of dispersal strategies for inbreeding avoidance

In the Shadow of a Myth: Bargaining for Same-Sex Divorce

This Article explores a relatively new phenomenon in family law: same-sex divorce. The Article\u27s central claim is that parties to the first wave of same-sex divorces are not effectively bargaining against the backdrop of legal dissolution rules that would govern in the absence of an agreement. In other words, to use Robert Mnookin and Lewis Kornhauser\u27s terminology, they are not bargaining in the shadow of the law. Instead, the Article argues, many same-sex couples today bargain in the shadow of a myth that same-sex couples are egalitarian—that there are no vulnerable parties or power differentials in same-sex divorce. The Article shows how a myth of egalitarianism undermines current bargaining for same-sex divorce. First, the myth leads to what the Article calls “divorce exceptionalism,” that is, when a party claims that existing marriage dissolution rules do not apply in same-sex divorce because they were designed to remedy the nonegalitarian conditions of different-sex marriages. Divorce exceptionalism disables effective bargaining because without default legal rules there is nothing to guide the bargaining process. Second, the myth of egalitarianism eliminates key bargaining chips: under a presumption of formal equality neither party really has anything to “give” or “get” in the bargain for divorce. Finally, the myth, combined with the general fog of uncertainty regarding how courts will treat same-sex divorces, may lead to increased strategic behavior. The Article proposes a realistic solution, arguing that the legal actors who participate in same-sex divorce, including lawyers, mediators, courts, and the parties themselves, should reject divorce exceptionalism and apply ordinary divorce rules. It also proposes to protect vulnerable parties by extending to same-sex divorce the current trend toward joint-custody presumptions. The myth of egalitarianism in same-sex couples, which was quite helpful in achieving marriage equality, is now haunting the first wave of same-sex divorces and harming vulnerable parties. It is time to let it go and address the reality of same-sex relationships

Parental divorce is not uniformly disruptive to children's educational attainment.

Children whose parents divorce tend to have worse educational outcomes than children whose parents stay married. However, not all children respond identically to their parents divorcing. We focus on how the impact of parental divorce on children's education varies by how likely or unlikely divorce was for those parents. We find a significant negative effect of parental divorce on educational attainment, particularly college attendance and completion, among children whose parents were unlikely to divorce. Families expecting marital stability, unprepared for disruption, may experience considerable adjustment difficulties when divorce occurs, leading to negative outcomes for children. By contrast, we find no effect of parental divorce among children whose parents were likely to divorce. Children of high-risk marriages, who face many social disadvantages over childhood irrespective of parental marital status, may anticipate or otherwise accommodate to the dissolution of their parents' marriage. Our results suggest that family disruption does not uniformly disrupt children's attainment

The long term effects of legalizing divorce on children

We estimate the effect of divorce legalization on the long-term well-being of children. Our identification strategy relies on exploiting the different timing of divorce legalization across European countries. Using European Community Household Panel data, we compare the adult outcomes of cohorts who were raised in an environment where divorce was banned with cohorts raised after divorce was legalized in the same country. We also have “control” countries where all cohorts were exposed (or not exposed) to divorce as children, thus leading to a difference-in-differences approach. We find that women who grew up under legal divorce have lower earnings and income as well as worse health as adults compared with women who grew up under illegal divorce. These effects are not found for men. We find no effects of divorce legalization on children’s family formation or dissolution patterns.Divorce, legislation, intergenerational effects, child outcomes

The harmonisation of private international law in Europe: taking the character out of family law?

This article examines the recent expansion of EU regulation of the private international law aspects of divorce and its consequences. The application of Brussels IIbis, the Maintenance Regulation, Rome III and the proposed Rome IV to a typical divorce case will be investigated to see if this unwieldy system is coherent in application. It is argued that the envisaged framework for international divorce is becoming unmanageable and that the characterisation of divorce by the EU into the three snapshots of decree, maintenance and matrimonial property ignores the ties between these three events provided by domestic policy

An Examination of the Occurrence of Divorce and Social and Demographic Factors within Chicago

This research looks at the occurrence of divorce among Cook County-Chicago census tracts from data gathered from the 2006-2010 American Community Survey (ACS) of the U.S. Census Bureau. Previous research has looked at various factors believed to affect the divorce rate of a country, in particular the economic development, average educational attainment, and participation of women in the labor force. These past studies have often found a significant and positive correlation between divorce and a country\u27s economic development, educational attainment, and participation of women in the labor force. However, these studies have mostly focused on cross-national boundaries, thus allowing for greater disregard for cultural norms and differences across countries. This study, then, examines divorce as it is found within a diverse city (known historically for its segregation) of a single nation. Occurrence of divorce is mapped along with various demographic information such as race, income level, educational attainment, and nativity, and then spatially analyzed

The Impact of Parental Divorce on the Intimate Relationships of Adult Offspring: A Review of the Literature

This literature review provides a comprehensive overview on the impact of parental divorce on the intimate relationships of adult offspring. In this review, the effects of parental divorce on adults’ relationships are associated with factors, as outlined in Christensen and Brooks (2001), which have been found to impact the attitudes toward intimacy and marriage of adult children of divorce (ACD). The factors discussed include: age of individual at time of divorce, gender, family conflict, and trust. For each factor, with the exception of family conflict, the research findings present contradictory findings on the effects of parental divorce. The lack of research on this topic does not help alleviate those inconsistencies. Therefore, the author concludes that more research needs to be conducted in this area, in addition to modifying prevailing research methods that seem to exacerbate the mixed findings

Divorce Reform—One State’s Solution

Although New York has long been a leader in reform legislation, it has also had one of the most ineffective divorce laws in the nation. Therefore, it was not unrealistic to hope that when New York recently revised its divorce laws the new product would serve as a model for future reforms in other jurisdictions. While the new law as finally enacted is defective in several respects, its provisions reflect an attempt to accommodate the basic reform trends in current divorce law. This comment investigates briefly the evolution of governmental controls of divorce, the American tradition prior to the New York reform, and the implications of the procedures finally adopted by that state

The Effects of Near and Actual Parental Divorce on Student Achievement and Misbehavior

It is well-documented that children whose parents divorced experience worse outcomes than children from two-parent families. However, data and methodological limitations have made it difficult to know whether declines were evident prior to the divorce or whether the declines were due to the unobserved time-varying factors that caused the parents to file for divorce. This paper addresses these questions by linking public records on divorce to child-level data on reading and mathematics composite test scores and school discipline records. Difference-in-difference estimates reveal steady declines in achievement and steady increases in misbehavior after parental divorce relative to children from two-parent families. These declines capture the causal effect of parental divorce under the assumption that the only factor that changed the trajectories of children at the time of divorce was the parental divorce. However, I find similar negative trends in the performance of children whose parents filed for divorce but ultimately chose to remain married. This suggests that post-divorce declines in children’s performance are likely due to the factors that caused the parents to divorce rather than to the legal dissolution of marriage itself.

Divorce Reform—One State’s Solution

Although New York has long been a leader in reform legislation, it has also had one of the most ineffective divorce laws in the nation. Therefore, it was not unrealistic to hope that when New York recently revised its divorce laws the new product would serve as a model for future reforms in other jurisdictions. While the new law as finally enacted is defective in several respects, its provisions reflect an attempt to accommodate the basic reform trends in current divorce law. This comment investigates briefly the evolution of governmental controls of divorce, the American tradition prior to the New York reform, and the implications of the procedures finally adopted by that state