The Increasingly Global Nature of Divorce

In this issue, we are proud to share a collection of articles that focus on children experiencing parental divorce and the contexts that surround the decision to divorce. These four articles report on studies conducted with dramatically different samples from multiple countries across the world, yet all fundamentally center children’s experiences of what has become a globally common family transition – parental divorce (Wang & Schofer, 2018). The issues addressed by these studies share many more commonalities across different countries and subcultures within countries than may have previously been expected in previous points of human history, likely in part a result of globalization, international treaties and advocacy, and technological advancements that have created more uniform divorce laws and experiences around the globe (Nicola, 2010; Wang & Schofer, 2018). Though family law has often been expected to vary much more considerably across cultures and nations than other legal domains, shifts toward less restrictive divorce laws have largely followed similar trends globally (Antokolskaia, 2006; Nicola, 2010; Wang & Schofer, 2018).

The landscape around divorce has changed dramatically over time; in the latter half of the 20th century, Western countries in particular saw a shift toward less restrictive divorce laws, with the introduction of no fault divorce, or divorce on the basis of irreconcilable differences (Oren, 2018; Wang & Schofer, 2018). The California Family Law Act of 1969 acted as a catalyst for changing stigma, legal consequences, and social perceptions about divorce in the U.S (Wheeler, 1974). Changes in law and judicial decision-making surrounding divorce, however, have continued to evolve over time in a variety of contexts and through a wide range of catalysts (Wang & Schofer, 2018). Some more recent changes include a preference for shared parenting time, changes requiring longer waiting periods after the divorce documents have been filed before a divorce could be granted, presumptions around alimony and child support, and further reductions in the use of fault-based grounds in legal divorce proceedings. These changes have coincided with ever-evolving cultural views and expectations about the nature of divorce, when one should be able to seek divorce, and which options should be made available to assist families in the aftermath of divorce.

In the 20th century, and perhaps earlier, divorce laws, policies, and customs were quite distinct around the world. For example, divorce was not allowed in certain countries that have Catholic and Muslim traditions. Ireland, a predominantly Catholic country, prohibited divorce until 1995 (Burley, 2002) and was the last Western country to make divorce legal (save for the Vatican). Even when divorce has been allowed, restrictions have existed on whom can ask for or be granted a divorce, and on what basis (Antokolskaia, 2006; Wang & Schofer, 2018). Over time, there has been a general trend toward fewer restrictions and more permissive policies related to divorce, such as whether one needed to find “fault” in order for divorce to be granted. Further, numerous changes including whether “alimony” should be expected or if it should only be granted in extenuating circumstances, how frequently fathers were encouraged and allowed to be involved in their children’s lives, and how property is divided following the divorce have signaled a fundamental shift in the experience of divorce for families. These changes have seemed to converge as a result of globalizing culture, advocacy, policy, and the evolving use of technology (Wang & Schofer, 2018).

In the 21st century, more accessible internet access, an increasingly greater array of social media options that extend further and more quickly into the world population, and greater ability to share information has led to more similarities in the issues that are dealt with in divorce-related situations than was true in the past (Wang & Schofer, 2018). This has been further catalyzed by technological products marketed toward both divorced parents and the legal systems that work with them, as well as the challenges introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic (Alexander, 2006; Wasser, 2021). Despite vast differences in cultural norms, policies, laws, and attitudes across the world, most countries have divorce policies that touch on similar issues, such as the grounds that must be established for a divorce to be granted, custody and visitation issues, division of assets that the couple has acquired either before or during the marriage, and whether or not there is some variant of alimony granted to the spouse who earns a lesser income. The positions that the court systems take on these key issues may differ across countries (and subcultures within countries), but the issues addressed are more similar than they once were (Hakovirta & Skinner, 2021; Wang & Schofer, 2018).

This issue

In this issue of Family Transitions, without previously planning to do so, we noticed that we had four articles that addressed similar issues in different countries and subcultures around the world. We, therefore, took advantage of this fortuitous opportunity to highlight the similarities in divorce-related issues addressed across four different countries and subcultures: the Netherlands, Iran (the participants in this study were Iranian Americans), India, and the United States.

In the article by van der Wal and colleagues, which explores forgiveness amongst children of divorce in the Netherlands, we also introduce the first of a new series in the Journal—Translational Commentaries. In these pieces, practicing scholars take the key empirical findings from a particular study (or literature review) and show how they can be used to inform interventions (ranging from psychotherapeutic strategies to policy changes). The inaugural piece in this series was developed by Browning and colleagues and proposes interventions that extend the researchers’ findings that the more that children can forgive their mothers, but not their fathers, is positively related to children’s adjustment following divorce. In this piece, the results of the van der Wal et al. study are summarized, before a discussion that can inform practitioners who may be assisting children and families when forgiveness of parents is a relevant dimension, and a concluding example that illustrates how forgiveness findings can be used to enhance therapeutic effectiveness particularly for children, but also for their parents. We hope that our readers not only find the original article to be informative, but that the Translational Commentary provides added insight and a further applied complement to the original research article that can increase the effectiveness of therapists working with post-divorce families.

Taken together, the articles in this issue address variations in how various divorce-related issues are associated with adjustment to divorce, with attention given to the complexity of issues related to divorce adjustment and decisions related to choosing to divorce across different countries and distinctive cultures. All of the studies share a focus on family, environmental, and legal factors that surround divorce. Further three of these studies focused on children’s adjustment. The aforementioned van der Wal et al. study provided insight into the importance of forgiveness, exploring what interpersonal factors seem to make a difference for children that experience parental divorce in The Netherlands. Krug and colleagues provide insight into divorce adjustment for children in the Midwestern United States through retrospective interviews. A focus of this piece was environmental context, with the researchers examining how these experiences vary relative to the relative rurality of the communities in which these children reside.

Amini et al. took a similar strategy of exploring the retrospective experiences of children of divorce but focused exclusively on Iranian American adults who experienced parental divorce during childhood. Insight about these experiences for Americans that largely viewed themselves as immersed within Iranian culture and communities provided a lens to understand how distinct experiences of divorce and the needs of children post-divorce can be, given various contextual and cultural considerations. These three pieces all shared common goals in identifying and leveraging the factors that improve wellbeing for children in the aftermath of divorce. Despite drastically different samples, with vastly different cultural backgrounds, ideals, and values about divorce, and needs, the central orienting purpose of much of this work is consistent.

The work of Maheshwari et al. did not focus on child adjustment but rather the issue of when divorce is an appropriate option and what stigma exists around divorce in particular contexts, using a sample of young adults from India. Similar to our other pieces in this issue, this study provides insight into the importance of considering context and understanding the experiences of divorce for modern families. We were struck very much by the similarities in factors considered across the four studies and felt even more committed to broadening the focus of Family Transitions beyond national, geographic, socioeconomic, and cultural boundaries. Given the increase in the number of manuscript submissions we are receiving from countries outside of the United States and outside of the Western world, in general, we expect (and encourage) progressively more papers on divorce from understudied parts of the globe and are proud to have a hopefully long-lasting window that would allow us to broaden our focus into the future.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).