Y. study to evaluate 'crossroads of divorce'; participants wanted

PROVO — There are numerous studies about the effects of divorce on children, a couple's earning potential, men's and women's health and even future relationships.

There is almost no research about how people go about making that decision to call it quits.

"The research on what we might call the reconciliation question is just virtually nil," said Alan Hawkins, a BYU professor in the School of Family Life who studies marriage and divorce. "And so we're excited to try to get a sense of what's going on."

Hawkins and doctoral student Tamara Fackrell are embarking on a new project involving numerous interviews to learn how people think during this critical and difficult time — what Hawkins calls the "crossroads of divorce."

While the divorce rate in the United States has been dropping over the last few years, it's still higher than people like Hawkins think it should be.

In 1960, 9.2 of every 1,000 married women ages 15 and older got divorced. By 1980, the number had jumped to 22.6 women. In 2009, it was back down to 16.4 women, according to the National Marriage Project's analysis of Census Bureau data.

The National Marriage Project's 2010 report suggests two reasons for the decline: First, that people are delaying marriage until they're a bit older and second, that many who are getting married are more educated. Both factors lead to greater marital stability, according to the report.

Though the rate is stable, many believe it should be lower, and for the first time, Hawkins said there is a serious push to consider reasonable divorce reform initiatives from organizations like the Coalition for Divorce Reform and Utah Healthy Marriage Initiative and Utah State Cooperative Extension Service.

The Coalition for Divorce Reform promises to support "efforts to reduce unnecessary divorce and promote health marriages. The ... website is designed to increase awareness of the negative impact of divorce and encourage discussion and debate about the effect of divorce on our culture, as well as the cost to taxpayers."

While it sounds like an odd term, "unnecessary divorces" happen much more frequently than people realize, Hawkins said.

"People may have the thought that once the notion of divorce surfaces, it's kind of like bad fruit," he said. "Once it goes bad, you don't stick it back in the refrigerator to heal itself; it gets worse, so you have to throw it out."