Growing up as a child, I was a victim of the ever-growing divorced parents population. I can name about 10+ different friends of mine who have divorced or separated parents as well, showing how it seems to have become an ordinary deed in our society today. A study from 2014 shows that from 1980 to 2010, divorce rates have doubled among persons over 35 years of age. I don’t necessarily think that divorce is an evil in life, but it does make me question the science behind it and behind relationships in general as well as the effect that they can have on an individual. My personal association with my parents divorce is the reason I am interested in the subject and have a desire to research it further.
Love is a murky subject to affiliate science with. According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, the definition is as follows:
ləv/
“Feelings” and “science” aren’t exactly synonymous. One is internal and personal, while the other is worldwide and knowledge based. But there has been some noted science behind the act of love and being in love. There are neurochemical changes: dopamine levels increase, as well as adrenaline and norepinephrine, raising heart beat levels and creating a feeling of euphoria. So where does divorce come in to this equation? A Northwestern University study notes their understanding of it, believing that increasing rates are due to a change in nature of expectations of each other in a relationship, such as higher psychological needs. In the past century, the primary goal of marriage was to provide the basic needs for each other (food, shelter and safety) rather than love and companionship. If those needs were met, the marriage would most likely be a success. In today’s day and age, the goals and needs have changed.
Another big issue that comes to mind when talking about divorce is the impact that it will have on the children if there happen to be an
y in the relationship. Research says how children whose parents divorced when they were between birth and 5 years old have a greater level on insecurity in their relationships with parents than those who have divorced parents at an older age. The stress on the child also increases likeliness of depression, anxiety, substance abuse, delinquent behavior, and teen pregnancy in females. However, this is primarily evident in children whose parents have suffered an ugly divorce, a spiteful relationship between the two adults which brought the children into the center of it.
This isn’t to say that all divorces are bad decisions or negatively impact the child. In fact, my parents divorce has probably made me a better and happier person. My point is that it is evident that there is science behind love and divorce, and plenty of research to prove it.
When reading this blog post I was curious about confounding third variables that could account for why the divorce rate was increasing, and in my search I stumbled upon a Washington Post article by Christopher Ingraham stating that it is “the baby boomer’s fault”(Ingraham) that the divorce rate is rising. The graph attached to the article details the divorce rates from 1970-2010. “The line for 1970 is comparatively flat”(Ingraham)…and there was not a significant pattern in the ages of people who were getting divorced. However, starting in “1980 you can see a bulge forming at the younger end of the age spectrum as the baby boomers started divorcing”(Ingraham). This is due to the fact that the baby boomer generation is now middle aged and entering into for “marital instability”(Ingraham). In addition to this fact, the other part that can account for the rise in this generation and the one after it is that “the relative rarity of divorce among younger Americans today”(Ingraham). Ingraham also states how “this is likely due to a variety of reasons [such as] people waiting longer to get married, and cohabitation is on the rise”(Ingraham). Based on the extensive research, I feel that this is actually a possible confounding third variable and could explain, at least partially, why the divorce rate is on the rise at this time in combination with all that you stated in your blog post.
Citation:
Ingraham, Christopher. “Divorce Is Actually on the Rise, and It’s the Baby Boomers’ Fault.” Washington Post. The Washington Post, 27 Mar. 2014. Web. 4 Dec. 2015. .
I found your blog interesting because for the last three blog periods when I have been stuck on what the topic of my next blog should be the idea of questioning if true love is for real always come to mind. I have always ultimately decided that there is no point in me trying to connect love and science, but you made me change my mind! I enjoyed how you based your blog from a personal experience. In your first paragraph I at first had trouble understanding the way you phrased your thesis question to say “it does make me question the science behind it (love) and behind relationships in general as well as the effect that they can have on an individual”. I see that you are questioning three different aspects of divorce, but I would have understood you better if you had said clearly that there are thee aspects of divorce that you were questioning. I also felt that you should have either taken out the final question of effects divorce can have on an individual or added more to your final paragraph regarding that subject.
In your second paragraph you discuss the changes in nature of expectations. You claim that in the past they were once about the core values of food, shelter and safety, however that makes me wonder how people responded to their feelings of love towards others if that is what they were marrying for. I ask this question because earlier in the paragraph when you are connecting science and love you talk about “dopamine levels increase, as well as adrenaline and norepinephrine, raising heart beat levels and creating a feeling of euphoria”. So we know that these feelings of love have always been in us, but were they ignored many years ago?
As someone that has personally never experienced divorce I feel that it would be interesting if your blog included some research on different family structures and how that effected the development of the children. I get this idea after you state in your blog that children of divorced families are more likely to have “depression, anxiety, substance abuse, delinquent behavior, and teen pregnancy”. What if you compared that to a child that had parents that never separated, but was abused. The link below provides statics for children categorized by age, it would be interesting to compare those statics to the ones of a child of divorce.
http://www.safehorizon.org/page/child-abuse-facts-56.html
Great post and even greater observation! Normally, I would say it is impossible for science to explain the reasons behind divorce today. But after looking at your evidence, I see it might be possible after all. The evidence you provided with the decreasing of chemical levels in the brain correlates strongly with a person feeling like they’re no longer in love. This correlation possibly explains one of the causes of divorce today. Although there are third variables to be accounted for when it comes to the reasons behind divorce, I can see where science comes into married couples separating. But when you talk about how social norms have changed and how these changed norms in society influence why married couples divorce, I would say that you’re talking about sociology. Sociology has more to do with people in a population and their behavior when encountered with changes in their society. Couples divorcing over the changes in what society expects from marriages has more to do with the social and behavioral sciences than it does with the physical sciences. So although the sciences have something to do with the reasons behind why couples divorce, it depends on what kind of science is being used.