Divorce among macrosocial units: A reexamination

Abstract

This study revisits fairly well-established theoretical assumptions. in order to reexamine the variation in aggregate measures of divorce among the 50 American states. Four hypotheses (i.e. social integration. women's economic independence, socioeconomic status. and proportion of the population that is black) are derived as potential explanations. Regression analysis indicates that social integration is inversely related to divorce, whereas women's economic independence is positively related to divorce. Socioeconomic status is found to be negatively related to divorce. whereas proportion of the population that is black has no effect.