The Intergenerational Transmission of Divorce: A Fifteen-Country Study with the Fertility and Family Survey

Abstract

Studies mainly from the United States provide evidence that children of divorced parents face a higher risk of divorce in their own marriages. We estimate and analyze the effects of divorce transmission using comparative individual data from the United Nations for 13 eastern and western European countries as well as for Canada and the United States. We find substantial and highly statistically significant transmission effects in all samples. This shows that the intergenerational transmission of divorce is a widespread phenomenon observed without a single exception in our data covering a large number of countries with differing historical, institutional, and cultural contexts.Divorce, Divorce Risk, Intergenerational Transmission, Consequences of Divorce, Child Well-being