The Marital Happiness of Remarried Divorced Persons

Abstract

A comparison of the reported marital happiness of ever-divorced and never-divorced white respondents to three recent U.S. national surveys reveals significantly greater marital happiness fbr never-divorced females but not fbr never-divorced males. Even among females, the difference in the percentage of very happy responses was less than 10 points. It is concluded that remarriages of divorced persons which do not quickly end in divorce probably are, as a whole, almost as successful as intact first marriages. The findings do not support the view, based on the recent increase in divorce, that American marriage has become obsolete and ineffective in serving the needs qf individuals.