Deck 15: Divorce and Rescripted Families

Question 1

A legal separation is exactly like a divorce except

A) The marital property is not divided.
B) Child custody and visitation issues are not dealt with.
C) Neither partner can legally remarry someone else.
D) The former partners must continue to live together.
E) None of the above-there is no difference between legal separation and divorce.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

In hunting-gathering societies,

A) Divorce was generally more difficult to get than in horticultural and agrarian societies.
B) The Inuit provide an example of a society with very low divorce rates.
C) Marriage and divorce practices varied considerably.
D) All of the above.
E) Only (a) and (c) above.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

In advanced agrarian societies of Western Europe,

A) Both the divorce rate and the remarriage rate were very high.
B) The divorce rate was very low.
C) The divorce rate was high but the remarriage rate was low.
D) In Catholic countries the divorce rate was low, but under the early Anglican Church in England the divorce rate was very high.
E) In Catholic countries the divorce rate ranged from very low in some countries to very high in others.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

According to William J. Goode, "desacralization" of marriage occurs

A) As societies move from hunting-gathering to horticultural modes of production.
B) As societies become more agrarian.
C) As societies become more industrial.
D) As societies become more post industrial.
E) Any time there is a change from one mode of production to another.

Question 5

According to Goode, Riley, and others, the divorce rate has historically been high in the United States because

A) Not enough Americans belong to religious groups.
B) There is a strong value of personal independence.
C) Americans are too wealthy.
D) The social class differences are too pronounced.
E) The United States has increasingly become a socialist society.

Question 6

In Colonial America,

A) Divorces were first granted by courts, then legislatures took over.
B) Divorces took on the adversarial nature of legal proceedings in civil lawsuits.
C) The "guilty" party in a divorce could often be punished legally.
D) All of the above.
E) Only (b) and (c) above.

Question 7

It was true about grounds for divorce in early America that

A) Male impotence was a ground for divorce.
B) A man's failure to support his wife was a ground for divorce.
C) A woman's infertility was a ground for divorce.
D) All of the above.
E) Only (a) and (b) above.

Question 8

The "full faith and credit" clause of the U.S. Constitution

A) Requires equity in divorce settlements.
B) Requires each state to recognize the legal proceedings of other states, including marriages and divorces.
C) Required all divorces to be approved by a state legislature before they could become legally recognized.
D) Standardizes the grounds of divorce for all states.
E) Establishes the constitutional right of citizens to seek a divorce.

Question 9

The divorce rate in the United States

A) Has dropped temporarily after every major war.
B) Went up during the Great Depression.
C) Reached it peak around 1980.
D) Has continued to rise almost every year since 1970.
E) Has not been affected by the Baby Boom.

Question 10

Which of the following ways of calculating the divorce rate is probably the best for comparing rates of actual divorces from two different states for one year?

A) Comparisons of number of divorces with number of marriages.
B) Absolute number of divorces.
C) Crude divorce rate.
D) Refined divorce rate.
E) Average marital risk.

Question 11

"No fault" divorce laws

A) First became effective in California in 1970.
B) Were an attempt to reduce the antagonism faced by children of divorce.
C) Are now present in some form in all 50 states.
D) All of the above.
E) Only (a) and (b) above.

Question 12

Joint custody

A) Refers to the awarding of shared residential custody to both parents after divorce.
B) Refers to the awarding of shared legal custody to both parents after divorce.
C) Is associated with better father-child relationships and better child outcomes.
D) All of the above.
E) Only (a) and (b) above.

Question 13

It is true about the gender of child-support payments that

A) In over 90% of the cases, it is the father who is ordered to pay child support to the custodial mother.
B) Of those ordered to pay, mothers are more likely to pay than are fathers.
C) Of those ordered to pay, mothers are required to pay more than are fathers.
D) All of the above.
E) Only (a) and (b) above.

Question 14

Which of the following is an element of the "Postdivorce Society"?

A) Creation of a more simple family structure.
B) A net decline in the standard of living of women compared to men.
C) An increase in familiastic values.
D) A strengthening of intergenerational ties.
E) None of the above.

Question 15

It is true about correlates of divorce that

A) Blacks have the highest rates, Latinos have the lowest, and Whites are in between.
B) Those with higher incomes have higher divorce rates.
C) The younger the individuals are at marriage the higher the divorce rate, until they reach the mid twenties.
D) All of the above.
E) Only (a) and (c) above.

Question 16

What is the relationship between education and divorce rates?

A) For both men and women, the more years of education the higher the rates.
B) For both men and women, the more years of education the lower the rates.
C) For men, rates go down with more education except that for men with five or more years of college rates go back up.
D) For women, rates go down with more education except that for women with five or more years of college rates go back up.
E) For both men and women, rates go down until high school graduation, then go back up for those with some college.

Question 17

As the text discusses personal "whys" of divorce,

A) These are the real reasons for the divorces.
B) They are accounts given in terms that are more socially acceptable.
C) The "why" usually is given as a personal failure of the person giving the reason.
D) The "whys" are remarkably consistent from one time and place to another.
E) Are just excuses.

Question 18

Of Bohannan's stations of divorce, the one that deals with mutual friends and extended kin is

A) The community divorce.
B) The coparental divorce.
C) The economic divorce.
D) The emotional divorce.
E) The emotional divorce.

Question 19

With respect to the well-being of divorced compared to married individuals, the "selection effect" suggests that

A) Most problems are a result of people choosing the wrong partner.
B) People with poor well-being are more likely to get divorced.
C) After divorce, people might choose to focus on the negative feelings rather than the positive ones.
D) It is the divorce itself that causes negative well-being of divorced individuals.
E) Post-divorce unhappiness is mostly caused by a decrease in standard of living.

Question 20

Children in which of the following family types are most likely to be in poverty?

A) Two parent home.
B) Never-married mother.
C) Divorced mother.
D) Never-married father.
E) Divorced father.

Question 21

To say that most children of divorce are resilient is to say that

A) They are marked by an ability to recover quickly from misfortune.
B) They are likely to suffer a drop in their standard of living.
C) They are better off, in many ways, than they were before the divorce.
D) They are likely to blame themselves for their parents' divorce.
E) They can have distress without disorders.

Question 22

It is true about the association between divorce and negative outcomes on children that

A) Some of the negative outcomes are the result of parental conflict that occurred before the divorce.
B) Children whose parents had high-conflict marriages suffer more after divorce than do children whose parents had low-conflict marriages.
C) The non-custodial parent's level of contact and involvement with children has no effect on the child's risks.
D) All of the above.
E) None of the above.

Question 23

It is true about remarriage rates that

A) They have been going up since 1970.
B) Women are more likely to remarry than are men.
C) Whites are more likely to remarry than are Blacks or Hispanics.
D) All of the above.
E) Only (b) and (c) above.

Question 24

Remarried couples

A) Have higher levels of marital satisfaction than do first marriages.
B) Are more likely to think of money as "his" and "hers" rather than "ours" than is the case for first marriages.
C) Have higher rates of marital stability than do first marriages.
D) Are more likely to hide their criticisms, anger, and irritation than are first marrieds.
E) Are likely to have high family satisfaction but low marital satisfaction.

Question 25

"Marriage chains" refers to

A) The feelings of desperation by people who feel they are trapped in a bad marriage.
B) The idea that the future of children is determined by their parents' marriage, a factor over which the children have no control.
C) Connections that link individuals across households through ties of disrupted and new unions.
D) The power of pronuptualism in traditional societies.
E) The strength provided two people when they have a good marriage.

Question 26

As a characteristic of step families, "boundary ambiguity" derives from which theoretical perspective?

A) Systems theory.
B) Conflict theory.
C) Functionalism.
D) Symbolic interactionism.
E) Developmental theory.

Question 27

In natural-mother, stepfather families, better child outcomes are likely when

A) Mothers are the primary disciplinarians.
B) Parents use authoritative styles.
C) Parents use authoritarian styles.
D) Both (a) and (b) above.
E) Both (a) and (c) above.

Question 28

What is the relationship between modes of production and divorce?

Question 29

How did "divorce mills" develop? What was their over effect on the American divorce rate?

Question 30

What impact do major historic and economic events have on the divorce rate?

Question 31

What are the characteristics of the postdivorce society?

Question 32

How have the personal "whys" of divorce changed since colonial times?

Question 33

What are the major characteristics of Bohannan's six stations of divorce?

Question 34

We know that divorce is associated with a number of negative outcomes for children. What are the major reasons for this association?

Question 35

What can parents do to reduce the amount of harm their children experience from divorce?

Question 36

In what ways do remarriages differ from first marriages?

Question 37

Cherlin referred to remarriage as an "incomplete institution." Explain.

Question 38

Explain how boundary ambiguity might characterize stepfamilies.