California Center for Population Research

Divorce is costly for parents because of the challenges of meeting children’s economic and socio-emotional needs after separation. Using the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 1,935), we investigate whether expected economic and parenting costs deter divorce. Mothers expect higher economic costs than fathers, whereas fathers expect more parenting difficulties. The majority of mothers and fathers, however, expect high economic and parenting costs. In a large minority of families mothers and fathers differ in their expected costs. Furthermore, only parenting costs deter divorce, not economic costs, and mothers’ parenting concerns are a greater barrier to divorce than fathers’ concerns when parents disagree. Finally, expected parenting costs are more of a barrier to divorce for unhappy than happy couples.