Covenant Marriage: The Movement to Reclaim Tradition in America

Chapter 7: Divorce, Religiosity, and Counseling

116 Chapter 7 Divorce, Religiosity, and Counseling Y The greatest success that any component of the marriage movement could possibly show would be a reduction in divorce rates. This chapter uses information collected in our surveys to compare divorce rates for standard and covenant couples, and draws on our qualitative interviews to fill in some important details. We pay particular attention to the role of religion in sustaining marriage in the face of troubles because this theme was so forcefully evident in all previous analyses. We also consider the role that marital counseling plays in preventing divorce, both before marriage (premarital counseling) and during the marriage (marriage counseling). Two major questions guide this chapter. First, do couples in covenant marriages have lower divorce rates than standard marriages? Second, if covenant marriages have lower divorce rates, why? Are divorce rate differences entirely due to self-selection factors (especially religiosity)? Or do elements of the law play a role net of other factors? Some couples may know from the outset that divorce is not an option they would consider (at least not at the time they get married) and select covenant marriage as an expression of this understanding. In this case, a covenant marriage is a public signal, indicating to others (including the state) which couples are less likely to divorce. Such a finding would imply that the primary (and perhaps only) effect of the law is symbolic . If only couples who are already predisposed to marital stability choose covenant marriage, then the choice is less likely to further reduce the chances of divorce. On the other hand, covenant marriage may be more than a symbolic signal. It may be that the legal requirements for a covenant marriage (which include signing a declaration of intent) foster greater stability among some Divorce, Religiosity, and Counseling 117 couples independently of all other factors. Of course, we are unable to measure every aspect of the ritualistic symbolic meanings of covenant marriage to individuals. But we can measure whether couples obtained counseling before or during marriage, and we can measure many other things about them that might reasonably be expected to influence (or be influenced by) the choice of a covenant marriage, especially religiosity. Who Faces Higher Risks of Divorce and Why? We find that a much smaller percentage of covenant couples than standard couples had divorced (8.6 percent versus 15.4 percent) by the end of the study. Table 7.1 shows that covenant couples have only a little over half the odds (.55) of divorce or separation that standard couples have. What factors help explain this apparent advantage? We examined several potential factors, including a couple’s religiosity, education, parental divorce, past cohabitation, demographics, family and peer approval of marriages , and marital history. Table 7.1 presents the odds ratios of each from a multivariate analysis. We find that religiosity, and not the covenant marriage per se, is primarily responsible for the lower divorce rates of covenant couples. Because religious people are less prone to divorce, then, not surprisingly, covenant couples, who are singularly more religious than standard couples, are less likely to divorce. Moreover, these effects are largely a result of the wife’s religiosity, not the husband’s. Even after a wide range of additional factors (for example, income, age, education) are controlled, we still find that the wife’s religiosity, and not the covenant status of their marriage, accounts for their lower divorce rates. The results also show that a wife’s higher (college) education significantly reduces the odds of divorce. We found that a husband’s education has little influence on the chances of divorce. We also see that couples whose parents divorced and those who are racial or ethnic minorities have higher chances of divorce. Cohabitation with the future spouse (compared with no cohabitation), in contrast, lowers the odds of divorce. This may represent the benefits of “testing the waters.” This particular form of cohabitation (with one’s future spouse) may be an effective form of marital search, unlike the more damaging form of cohabiting with multiple partners. Another factor shown to improve the odds of staying together is the couple’s perception that family and friends approve of the marriage. Here again, more religious couples generally have family and friends who are Table 7.1 Cox Regression Models, Covenant Effects on Marital Disruption Rates (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Exp...