Divorce Over the Life Course

Using a national panel of married individuals interviewed in 1980 and 1988, this study explores the apparent anomaly that marital happiness and divorce are both lower in longer marriages. We find that marital happiness has a stronger effect on divorce at longer durations than at shorter durations. Exploration of the interactions between barriers and alternatives to marriage dissolution and marital happiness suggests that this interaction arises because longer marriages are more often characterized by high barriers and few alternatives, a situation that strengthens the relationship between divorce and happiness.