Difference Between Divorce And Remarriage

FORUM THREE: DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE

KENSLEY A. COX

Marriage and divorce: two things that happen often in our society, even within our own immediate family. In this forum, divorce and remarriage will be discussed, and we will consider the various trends of these activities in America.

As time has passed, attitudes toward divorce have become more open and accepting, and rates have grown much higher. When there are relationship issues present, it is believed that one’s feelings about how acceptable divorce is, is based on how they were raised and their attitudes toward it. It is often believed that the increase in acceptance is closely associated to the political views that a person has, whether conservative or liberal. The religion that

This increase is often associated with the heightening of liberalized family laws, which permitted couples to get a legal divorce without it being necessary for one to accuse their spouse of committing a heinous act, such as abuse or infidelity. In addition, either the wife or husband in the marriage could demand for a divorce independent from one another. Therefore, the laws surrounding the family started to present the idea that marriage was voluntary for both parties and could be ended if one of the individuals no longer wanted to be involved. This was especially beneficial for females, who were often discriminated against in the process of divorce. While these law reforms were not solely responsible for the increase in divorce, it is with no doubt that we can say that the increase in the liberalized environment of divorce made the process easier to traverse. Somewhat exemplifying the results of the divorce revolution are a group of people that are often given special attention: those that were born during the baby boom. This generation, born in the late 1950s, would later become the group of people with the “highest divorce rate ever recorded” (Cohen 2014:354). By looking at this revolution and the changes in divorce rate, both before and because of the

Due to the increase in diversity of the composition of families, it is important to find areas that have been negatively affected. For example, what if Jill and Jim were not married? In this case, it is not clear if Jim could be called Susie’s stepfather. While Susie might refer to him as such, other family members might not agree with it for various reasons. In this case, Jim, as a “cohabiting stepparent”, could cause confusion if one was attempting to define each family member’s role or responsibilities. This creates a condition of boundary ambiguity, which “occurs when family members do not know or do not agree on who is in the family and what role each person plays” (Cohen 2014:370). When this condition is present, it can negatively affect the children that are involved, because establishing who are family members and who are not and who is trustworthy or who is not is important to the development and safety of the child. By not clearly defining this or the boundaries and limits of each family member, the children might be faced with confusion and unsureness in the one area that they normally depend on for guidance. This could even lead to inappropriate sexual interactions. In same-sex marriages, couples often readily seek to reduce this ambiguity, as it is normal for one or both parties involved to have a child from a previous marriage. It was much harder for