Study on Divorce

In a Nov. 15 commentary, Norval Glenn and David Blankenhorn attacked my research on the long-term consequences of parental divorce. They assert that my finding--the substantial narrowing of the divorce gap between people raised in intact and in divorced families--is not good news for today’s children. Glenn and Blankenhorn grossly misrepresent my work. They cite a university press release. If they had actually read my work, they would know that I never claimed that the divorce rate has declined for people from divorced families. What did decline was the gap in divorce rates for people from divorced and intact families. Still very good news.

Glenn and Blankenhorn seem unwilling to acknowledge that some of the negative effects of growing up in a divorced family have indeed lessened. Could they long for a return to the 1950s, when divorce rates were lower? This nostalgia ignores a crucial proposition from my research: When divorce was rare, only the very worst marriages were dissolved. Many children were trapped for years in unhappy and sometimes violent marriages. And was that good?

NICHOLAS H. WOLFINGER

Assistant Prof., Family and

Consumer Studies, University of

Utah, Salt Lake City