Full Citation

Title: Who Wants the Breakup? Gender and Breakup in Heterosexual Couples

Citation Type: Book, Section

Publication Year: 2018

ISBN:

ISSN:

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-71544-5_11

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Abstract: Marriage is the most important, and the most stable social network tie in American life. Marriage is also a gendered, and therefore a potentially asymmetric network tie. Most divorces in the US are wanted by the wife. Women’s predominance in wanting divorce (among couples who divorce) seems to have been consistent over time. This chapter employs a new longitudinal study of relationships in the US, the “How Couples Meet and Stay Together” surveys, to examine the gender of who wanted the breakup for both marital and nonmarital heterosexual relationships for the first time. The results show that only in marriages are the majority of breakups wanted by the female partner. Men and women in nonmarital heterosexual relationships in the US are equally likely to want to breakup. Furthermore, wives report lower relationship quality than husbands, while men and women in nonmarital relationships report more similar relationship quality.

Url: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-71544-5_11

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Rosenfeld, Michael J.

Editors:

Pages: 221-243

Volume Title: Social Networks and the Life Course

Publisher: Springer

Publisher Location: Cham

Volume:

Edition:

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Family and Marriage, Gender

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