Americans ambivalent about divorce

SYRACUSE, N.Y., April 24 (UPI) -- Single parenthood became prevalent in the 20th century but there is ambivalent acceptance of divorce rather than an embrace of it, U.S. researchers said.

Margaret L. Usdansky of Syracuse University in New York examined depictions of single-parent families in samples of popular magazine and social science journals.

The study, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, showed that critical depictions of divorce plummeted in magazines and journals during the 20th century. The decline was not driven by any increase in favorable depictions of divorce, but the virtual disappearance of normative debate over whether divorce was good or bad reflected an ambivalent acceptance of divorce.

There was even less evidence of any softening of attitudes toward non-marital childbearing during the 20th century. Popular and scholarly articles were as likely to include negative depictions of non-marital childbearing at the end of the century as they had at its beginning.

"My findings raise an important question as to why Americans form single-parent families at very high rates and yet continue to express deep ambivalence toward them," Usdansky said in a statement. "Couples in many European countries form single-parent families at similarly high rates but are less worried about the result. Americans place more emphasis on marriage as a personal goal and as the ideal setting in which to raise children."