Final Summary/Reaction

I found it so interesting to see what people thought about divorce.  I couldn't believe the amount of people who had at least one divorced relative in their family; the majority of the people who I surveyed had at least one divorce in their family.  My predictions were surprisingly accurate. Most of the people I surveyed agreed that the media has had an impact on the increased divorce rates; for the people whose parents are divorced, the oldest age was 13 when their parents got one; and for who they live with, it was someone split.  I really enjoyed conducting this survey. I received a lot of great insights and perspectives from a lot of different people. I was especially interested in reading why people think the divorce rate is increasing and the  surveys of the people's whose parents are divorced.  I really like the results that I got from both my surveys; I think they were a success.

Revised Summary/Plan/Update

My survey was a success! I made 2 different surveys (one for a general view on divorce of people whose parents aren't divorced and one for people whose parents are divorced).  I surveyed 17 people whose parents aren't divorced and 10 people whose parents are divorced (I hope to get a few more of each though to get more results). Within those 27 people, only 2 of them were males (my brothers); the rest were classmates. I would like to get a couple of adults' opinions as well within the next few days. I think the survey worked for the most part.  However, I think my free-response question for why they think more and more couples are getting divorced was difficult for some to answer so my results weren't that great for that question.  For instance, two people said “because people are stupid” for that question. I was a little mad with some of the people that took it because they didn't take it seriously enough.  Nevertheless, after putting all of my results in a chart, I gathered a lot of really interesting information.  I’m excited to get more surveys and calculate the different percentages to put all the information together.

Strategy/Plan for Research

Participants:

I plan to ask students from school, teens whose parents are divorced, and even some adults.  I would like to ask people between the ages of 15-50.  I would I to make 2 different surveys: one for people whose parents are divorced and one for anyone.  Because I will be asking some classmates, the survey will be given to mostly females.  However, I would like to get some male perspectives as well.  In my family alone, my parents are divorced and my aunt has been divorced twice.  I'm kind of on the fence about asking my relatives to take the survey, but I may get some interesting information from my aunt, parents, and even my brothers (possibly).  I am also debating about whether or not I should ask complete strangers.  The results may be more interesting, but it'd be weird to be handing out surveys in public places.

Method and Data Collection:

I would like to have a hard copy of my survey because I would like to hand it out myself.  However, because I don't want to go all over creation to administer the survey, it may be easier for my to create a Google doc or email the document to people.  I feel like administering it only through a hard copy will limit who I give the survey to because I'm not going to travel to many places to give out the survey.

Predictions:

I predict that most of the teenagers I ask will have parents who are still married, but I definitely think that  close to half of them will have divorced parents.  I also predict that people will agree that the media is helping in the increase of divorces.  For the teens whose parents are divorced, I feel that most were at a young age when their parents divorced.  For who they live with, I feel like it will be pretty split.

My Research Method

For my research method, I would like to conduct a survey to assess people's thoughts on divorce. For this project, I would really like to focus on people's thoughts about divorce: why they think the divorce rate has gone up; if they think the media has something to do with the increased rates; etc.  I would also like to get some perspectives from kids/teenagers whose parents are divorced; how old they were when their parents got a divorce; who they live with; how often do they see their other parent; how they felt at first about the divorce; how they feel now; etc.  I think the survey is the best method to use for my topic because I can get many different views and create my own statistics about divorced families in our community.

The Divorcer

In the T.V. show Friends, one guy in the group, Ross, has gotten divorced three times! Throughout the series, everyone makes jokes about how he's that "divorce guy" or "the divorcer" (the name Ross would rather be called). The video above is just one of the many moments where his friends make fun of him as the guy who gets a million divorces.  This series ran from 1994-2004, years where the divorce rate was over 4.0 and being acknowledged more on television. This scene, in particular, is a great example about how people are starting to think of divorce as a no-big-deal thing. They get married and then get divorced for whatever reasons and not really care about it.  Everyone on the show making jokes about it shows society that it's a "funny" or not important thing to do.  In another episode, Ross says "If you're going to call me a name, make it Ross, the divorcer,"  By this, Ross is making it a no-big-deal thing as well.

I think it's absolutely crazy how divorce is becoming such a nonchalant thing to do nowadays. Divorce is becoming just as common as marriage.  WHY is this? Because of the media. There are so many movies and series about divorce (portraying it as not a big thing). We also see so many celebrities get married and then divorced a week later, and people on TV shows, like on Friends, making jokes about it or doing the same exact thing.  By portraying this "not-a-big-deal" attitude about divorce in these ways, the message is clear to viewers and they develop the same attitude toward divorce.

The Statistics

I came across this one website, 10 Shocking Statistics about Children and Divorce, and it gave a lot of interesting information about children and divorce in general and the effects divorce has on children.  Before the statistics, the author of this page said something that I totally agree with, "These days most people accept divorce as a way of life, completely unaware of the damage they are doing to their children."  She then got into the facts.  Some startling statistics that I came across were that of all children born to married parents this year, 50% will experience the divorce of their parents before they reach their 18th birthday; half of all American children will witness the breakup of a parent’s marriage; compared to children from homes disrupted by death, children from divorced homes have more psychological problems and children living with both biological parents are 20 to 35 percent more physically healthy than children from broken homes.

The statistics that I listed above were the ones that I thought were the most shocking.  This post on the website was posted in 2006, about 7 years ago.  I can only imagine that the percentages are higher now than back then.  Like the author said, people are being more and more accepting of divorce; it's becoming a way of life.  It certainly is becoming a way of life, especially in 2013.  TV shows are beginning to revolve around divorced couples and celebrities get married and get divorced every other day.  From the media as a major source of shaping society, how can't divorce become a "way of life"?  The most shocking statistic was that compared to children from homes disrupted by death, children from divorced homes have more psychological problems.  That's crazy!  The only way I can see this as true is if the child wasn't close to the person who died.  I find it so hard to believe that children form more psychological problems from their parents being divorced than by a death in the family.  Maybe if the child is young the death wouldn't have as much of an impact on them?  I find it mind-boggling.

I would highly recommend that you read the rest of the statistics.  Some of them I can understand, but others I was totally surprised with.  What statistics, from what I mentioned or from the article, do you find most startling? 

Higher Rates of Divorce For Baby Boomers

I read a very interesting article about how divorce rates are doubling for baby boomers; I read Baby boomer divorce rate doubles.  The first half of this article talks about the divorce of a couple who's been married for 37 years.  Like many couples of their time, they met in college and married young and raised two children. But, they slowly grew apart... how most divorced couple start out.

The second half of this article talks about the increase of divorces among the baby boomer generation (this is the generation born between 1946 and 1964).  Divorce rates among couples 50 years and over have doubled in the last 20 years!  In 1990, fewer than 1 in 10 people who got a divorce were 50 years of age or older.  In 2009, it was 1 in 4 people, and this figure is only going to increase.  A study showed that out of these people over 50, most were blacks, the fewest were whites, and Hispanics were in the middle.  The study also showed that most of the older adults were less educated as well.  Two factors that some identified  to be reasons for these rising rates is longer life spans and the changing marital biographies of baby boomers.    Another reason was that this generation was the first to come of age when the rapid acceleration of premarital cohabitation and divorce rates in the 1970's and 1980's.

I found this article to be pretty intriguing.  Most people that I know whose parents are divorced, and even mine, are among this generation of people.  I was surprised to see that whites were the group with the lowest rate.  I don't really know why, but I guess I just assumed that whites would have the highest rate, or at least be in the middle.  It does make sense to me that among those adults, most were less educated because back then, not many people got a really good education; some just got a high school diploma and others received the basic college degree and didn't care to go any further.  I think that this divorce rate among baby boomers will increase in the next couple of years, but then it will level off and become a constant rate.