Gender differences in the long-term economic consequences of parental divorce

This paper reports tests of the broad hypothesis that there are gender differences in the long-term impact of parental divorce on the offsprings' achievement motivation and achievement behaviors. The hypothesis was tested with a sample of approximately 700 white men and women who wrote adequate protocols for the Thematic Apperception Test that was given in the 1976 survey of Americans' mental health. Principle inferences were that, holding control variables constant, parental divorce (1) raises the achievement motivation of daughters but does not lower it for sons, (2) lowers the earnings of daughters who work but has no effect on the earnings of sons. Through marriage, the offspring of divorce are able to attain the family income of the offspring of an intact family.