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It might be because people are getting married and having children later. I find that most people that I know that had parents that got divorced, it happened wh

It might be because people are getting married and having children later. I find that most people that I know that had parents that got divorced, it happened when their kids were in their mid to late teens. People now getting married at older ages and having kids later might get divorced now outside the 45 year old window.

dsfyu404ed 8y ago
Or you could take a more cynical view: Women that marry in their late 20s and have kids in their 30s aren't really thrilled with their dating prospects when they're fast approaching 40 and have a kid. Men that marry in their late 20s and have kids in their 30s don't like the idea of living in a crappy apartment, driving a 15yo Civic and eating rice and beans well into their 50s because they're getting bent over for child support. If you get married and feel you've made the wrong choice later in life you have more motivation to "make it work" because your ability to "do better" is worse. 50yr ago it wasn't uncommon for people to get married in their early 20s and be divorced (with or without kids, usually with) by 30. Millennials may just have skipped that phase. Edit: Never mind that last paragraph, it is contradicted by one of the graphs.
- rhacker 8y ago
  The graph on the page directly disagrees with that last sentence. 18-34 age range was bouncing around 11-13 percent divorce rate. Not much has changed at all in that age range.
- JadeNB 8y ago
  > Women that marry in their late 20s and have kids in their 30s don't really have great dating prospects when they're fast approaching 40 and have a kid. Is there any need to gender that statement? It seems just as true of men as of women. With the possible exception of differing child-support rates in the sexes (for which I have not bothered to gather any data), probably even the same is true of: > Men that marry in their late 20s and have kids in their 30s don't like the idea of living in a crappy apartment, driving a 15yo Civic and eating rice and beans well into their 50s because they're getting bent over for child support.
  - malvosenior 8y ago
    > Is there any need to gender that statement? It seems just as true of men as of women. There is quite a stark contrast between the sexes on desirability at various ages: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/15/style/dating-apps-online-men-women-age.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/15/style/dating-apps-online-...
  - scythe 8y ago
    Men typically don't take custody (IIRC, they often don't even ask). So he assumed the children would stay with the woman, and be a drag on her dating life, while the man would pay child support. It doesn't have to be this way, but it usually is.
  - kaitai 8y ago
    Child support payments are not the cause of women's financial woes after divorce, but you can absolutely look at the same general sentence: "Women that marry in their late 20s and have kids in their 30s don't like the idea of living in a crappy apartment, driving a 15yo Civic and eating rice and beans well into their 50s because they're getting bent over for" being women who had kids, often put their careers on the back burner, often were not aware of financial decision-making within the marriage, & got divorced without the ability to make as much money. Yeah, it's complicated; you can see one paper here [1] that quantifies the post-divorce earnings gap. It is improving. Anyhow, divorce is a ludicrously bad economic decision for many women. Don't know if that's a factor in the changing rate. [1] https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/files/iser_working_papers/2008-07.pdf https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/files/iser_working_papers/2008-... A more recent book: https://press.princeton.edu/titles/7519.html https://press.princeton.edu/titles/7519.html There's a chapter on divorce & child support. Gets pretty mathy. An interesting survey from UBS (the numbers are buried) about female abdication of financial decision-making responsibility in marriages: https://www.ubs.com/content/dam/WealthManagementAmericas/documents/2018-37666-UBS-Own-Your-Worth-report-R32.pdf https://www.ubs.com/content/dam/WealthManagementAmericas/doc...
    - blattimwind 8y ago
      > often put their careers on the back burner, often were not aware of financial decision-making within the marriage, & got divorced without the ability to make as much money. It's interesting how some paint this picture of mothers who decided to be homemakers as women who are just too dumb to care the correct amount about climbing the career lader.
- aaronblohowiak 8y ago
  Or a more positive view: more mature people are better able to identify partnerships that can endure. Or people who are older are more fixed and less likely to grow away from their partners. Or more time affords more opportunity to de-risk potential partners so social sorting has more time to “work”. Etc etc etc. “just so”

dsfyu404ed 8y ago

Or you could take a more cynical view: Women that marry in their late 20s and have kids in their 30s aren't really thrilled with their dating prospects when they're fast approaching 40 and have a kid. Men that marry in their late 20s and have kids in their 30s don't like the idea of living in a crappy apartment, driving a 15yo Civic and eating rice and beans well into their 50s because they're getting bent over for child support. If you get married and feel you've made the wrong choice later in life you have more motivation to "make it work" because your ability to "do better" is worse. 50yr ago it wasn't uncommon for people to get married in their early 20s and be divorced (with or without kids, usually with) by 30. Millennials may just have skipped that phase. Edit: Never mind that last paragraph, it is contradicted by one of the graphs.

rhacker 8y ago
The graph on the page directly disagrees with that last sentence. 18-34 age range was bouncing around 11-13 percent divorce rate. Not much has changed at all in that age range.
JadeNB 8y ago
> Women that marry in their late 20s and have kids in their 30s don't really have great dating prospects when they're fast approaching 40 and have a kid. Is there any need to gender that statement? It seems just as true of men as of women. With the possible exception of differing child-support rates in the sexes (for which I have not bothered to gather any data), probably even the same is true of: > Men that marry in their late 20s and have kids in their 30s don't like the idea of living in a crappy apartment, driving a 15yo Civic and eating rice and beans well into their 50s because they're getting bent over for child support.
- malvosenior 8y ago
  > Is there any need to gender that statement? It seems just as true of men as of women. There is quite a stark contrast between the sexes on desirability at various ages: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/15/style/dating-apps-online-men-women-age.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/15/style/dating-apps-online-...
- scythe 8y ago
  Men typically don't take custody (IIRC, they often don't even ask). So he assumed the children would stay with the woman, and be a drag on her dating life, while the man would pay child support. It doesn't have to be this way, but it usually is.
- kaitai 8y ago
  Child support payments are not the cause of women's financial woes after divorce, but you can absolutely look at the same general sentence: "Women that marry in their late 20s and have kids in their 30s don't like the idea of living in a crappy apartment, driving a 15yo Civic and eating rice and beans well into their 50s because they're getting bent over for" being women who had kids, often put their careers on the back burner, often were not aware of financial decision-making within the marriage, & got divorced without the ability to make as much money. Yeah, it's complicated; you can see one paper here [1] that quantifies the post-divorce earnings gap. It is improving. Anyhow, divorce is a ludicrously bad economic decision for many women. Don't know if that's a factor in the changing rate. [1] https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/files/iser_working_papers/2008-07.pdf https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/files/iser_working_papers/2008-... A more recent book: https://press.princeton.edu/titles/7519.html https://press.princeton.edu/titles/7519.html There's a chapter on divorce & child support. Gets pretty mathy. An interesting survey from UBS (the numbers are buried) about female abdication of financial decision-making responsibility in marriages: https://www.ubs.com/content/dam/WealthManagementAmericas/documents/2018-37666-UBS-Own-Your-Worth-report-R32.pdf https://www.ubs.com/content/dam/WealthManagementAmericas/doc...
  - blattimwind 8y ago
    > often put their careers on the back burner, often were not aware of financial decision-making within the marriage, & got divorced without the ability to make as much money. It's interesting how some paint this picture of mothers who decided to be homemakers as women who are just too dumb to care the correct amount about climbing the career lader.
aaronblohowiak 8y ago
Or a more positive view: more mature people are better able to identify partnerships that can endure. Or people who are older are more fixed and less likely to grow away from their partners. Or more time affords more opportunity to de-risk potential partners so social sorting has more time to “work”. Etc etc etc. “just so”