The Divorce Surge Is Over, but the Myth Lives On (2014)
So... another example where the relationship between real trends and statistics and the ones people hear&#x2F;believe are basically estranged. Pun intended, I sincerely apologize.<p>Beyond that.., i still have not heard a narrative that rang true to me. In some nontrivial senses, I think the instinctive conservative explanations are probably true. Society did unravel, as women&#x27;s liberation and other big cultural shifts happened. Some of this is very simple, financial independence of both people changes what a marriage is and makes divorce possible.<p>A lot of this was probably down to feedbacks. Divorce became more common, more normal than it had been This made it an option, where it hadn&#x27;t been.<p>I suspect that the &quot;people just got flakier&quot; narrative is mostly <i>&quot;kids today</i>&quot; BS, but who knows.<p>The way coupled get together has been totally rattled every generation for 4-5 generations now.<p>In any case, it&#x27;s interesting that the trend is reversing. My general instictive guess is quasi-femenist. The nature of gender relations &amp; marriage completely changed, starting in the 50s (or maybe the 20s). This basically broke marriage, as an institution. Maybe we&#x27;ve been putting it back together in our generation. This is pretty vague though.<p>I&#x27;m still waiting to stumble across a sociological narrative that tickles my <i>&quot;ah, that makes sense!</i>&quot; nerve. It&#x27;s an interesting question.