The Social Construction of the Divorce "Problem": Morality, Child Victims, and the Politics of Gender

Family Relations

Volumn 52, Issue 4, 2003, Pages 363-372

  Coltrane, Scott ^a   Adams, Michele ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

^b NONE

Author keywords

Divorce; Family policy; Gender; Marriage; Social movements; Social problems

Indexed keywords

EID: 0242595935     PISSN: 01976664     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1741-3729.2003.00363.x     Document Type: Article

References (103)

1. Adams, M. A. (2003). Constructing the essential family: A comparison of nineteenth and twentieth century marriage reform movements. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, Riverside.
2. Allen, K. R. (2000). A conscious and inclusive family studies. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62, 4-17.
3. Amato, P. R. (2003). Reconciling divergent perspectives: Judith Wallerstein, quantitative family research, and children of divorce. Family Relations, 52, 331-339.
4. Arendell, T. (1986). Mothers and divorce: Legal, economic, and social dilemmas. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
5. Arendell, T. (1995). Fathers and divorce. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
6. Basch, N. (1999). Framing American divorce: From the revolutionary generation to the Victorians. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
7. Berlet, C., & Lyons, M. N. (2000). Right-wing populism in America: Too close for comfort. New York: Guilford Press.
8. Best, J. (1987). Rhetoric in claims-making: Constructing the missing children problem. Social Problems, 34, 101-121.
9. Best, J. (1990). Threatened children: Rhetoric and concern about child victims. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
10. Blake, N. M. (1962). The road to Reno: A history of divorce in the United States. New York: Macmillan.
11. Blankenhorn, D. (1995). Fatherless America: Confronting our most urgent social problem. New York: Basic Books.
12. Bolt, C. (1993). The women's movements in the United States and Britain from the 1790s to the 1920s. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.
13. Bounds, E. (1996). Between the devil and the deep blue sea: Feminism, family values, and the division between public and private. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 12, 111-126.
14. Bowlby, J. (1953). Child care and the growth of love. London: Penguin Books.
15. Bradford, L. (1997). The counterrevolution: A critique of recent proposals to reform no-fault divorce laws. Stanford Law Review, 49, 607-636.
16. Brooks, C. (2002). Religious influence and the politics of family decline concern: Trends, sources, and U.S. political behavior. American Sociological Review, 67, 191-211.
17. Caldwell, K. L. (1998). Not Ozzie and Harriet: Postwar divorce and the American liberal welfare state. Law and Social Inquiry, 23, 1-49.
18. Cannon, D. M. (Ed.). (2002). Readers' guide to periodical literature: An author and subject index, 61. New York: H. W. Wilson.
19. Cherlin, A. (1999). Going to extremes: Family structure, children's well-being, and social science. Demography, 36, 421-428.
20. Cherlin, A. (2000). Generation ex-. The Nation, 271(19), 62.
21. Chetwynd, L. (Writer), & Dunlap, G. (Director). (1997). Children of divorce [Television series episode]. In C. Denke (Producer), National Desk. Alexandria, VA: PBS Video.
22. Chodorow, N., & Contratto, S. (1992). The fantasy of the perfect mother. In B. Thorne & M. Yalom (Eds.), Rethinking the family: Some feminist questions (pp. 191-214). Boston: Northeastern University Press.
23. Coltrane, S. (1998). Gender and families. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
24. Coltrane, S. (2001). Marketing the marriage "solution": Misplaced simplicity in the politics of fatherhood. Sociological Perspectives, 44, 387-422.
25. Coltrane, S., & Collins, R. (2001). Sociology of marriage and the family: Gender, love, and property. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
26. Coltrane, S., & Hickman, N. (1992). The rhetoric of rights and needs: Moral discourse in the reform of child custody and child support laws. Social Problems, 39, 400-420.
27. Coontz, S. (1992). The way we never were: American families and the nostalgia trap. New York: Basic Books.
28. Coontz, S. (1997). The way we really are: Coming to terms with America's changing families. New York: Basic Books.
29. Cott, N. (1976). Eighteenth-century family and social life revealed in Massachusetts divorce records. Journal of Social History, 10, 20-43.
30. Cott, N. E (2000). Public vows: A history of marriage and the nation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
31. Degler, C. N. (1980). At odds: Women and the family in America from the revolution to the present. New York: Oxford University Press.
32. Diamond, S. (1996). Facing the wrath: Confronting the right in dangerous times. Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press.
33. Doherty, W. J. (1997). The best of times and the worst of times: Fathering as a contested arena of academic discourse. In A. J. Hawkins & D. C. Dollahite (Eds.), Generative fathering: Beyond deficit perspectives (pp. 217-227). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
34. Duenwald, M. (2002, March 26). 2 portraits of children of divorce: Rosy and dark. The New York Times, p. F6.
35. Edelman, M. J. (1977). Political language: Words that succeed and policies that fail. New York: Academic Press.
36. Fagan, P. F., & Rector, R. (2000). The effects of divorce on America. The Heritage Foundation Backgrounder Executive Summary, No. 1373. Retrieved July 14, 2001, from http://www.heritage.org/library/backgrounder/bg1373es.html
37. Federal Register. (1995, December 15). Change in marriage and divorce data available from the National Center for Health Statistics. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved April 1, 2002, from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/datawh/datasite/fnotice.htm
38. Fineman, M. A. (1991). The illusion of equality: The rhetoric and reality of divorce reform. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
39. Friedman, L. M. (1984). Rights of passage: Divorce law in historical perspective. Oregon Law Review, 63, 640-669.
40. Friedman, L. M., & Percival, R. V. (1976). Who sues for divorce? From fault through fiction to freedom. Journal of Legal Studies, 5, 61-82.
41. Gallagher, M. (2002a). Marriage and public policy: What can government do? New York: Institute for American Values.
42. Gallagher, M. (2002b, March 25). Third thoughts on divorce: How good does it get? National Review On-Line. Retrieved December 10, 2002, from http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-gallagherprint032502.html
43. Gamson, W. A. (1985). Goffman's legacy to political sociology. Theory and Society, 14, 605-622.
44. Gauthier, M. A. (Ed.). (2001). Readers' guide to periodical literature: An author and subject index, 60. New York: H. W. Wilson.
45. Gauthier, M. A., & Marra, J. M. (Eds.). (2000). Readers' guide to periodical literature: An author and subject index, 59. New York: H. W. Wilson.
46. Goode, E., & Ben-Yehuda, N. (1994). Moral panics: The social construction of deviance. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
47. Greven, P. (1991). Spare the child: The religious roots of punishment and the psychological impact of physical abuse. New York: Knopf.
48. Griswold, R. L. (1982). Family and divorce in California, 1850-1890. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
49. Grossberg, M. (1985). Governing the hearth: Law and the family in nineteenth-century America. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
50. Gusfield, J. R. (1996). Contested meanings: The construction of alcohol problems. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
51. Hackstaff, K. B. (1999). Marriage in a culture of divorce. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
52. Hansen, D. D. (1999). The American invention of child support: Dependency and punishment in early American child support law. Yale Law Journal, 108, 1123-1153.
53. Hayes, M. T. (1981). Lobbyists and Legislators: A theory of political markets. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
54. Hays, S. (1996). The cultural contradictions of motherhood. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
55. Hetherington, E. M. (2002, April 8). Marriage and divorce American style: A destructive marriage is not a happy family. The American Prospect On-Line, 13, 62-63. Retrieved December 10, 2002, from http://www.prospect.org/print-friendly/print/V13/7/hetherington-e.html
56. Hetherington, E. M. (2003). Intimate pathways: Changing patterns in close personal relationships across time. Family Relations, 52, 318-331.
57. Hetherington, E. M., & Kelly, J. (2002). For better or for worse: Divorce reconsidered. New York: Norton.
58. Horn, W. F., & Sylvester, T. (2002). Father facts. Gaithersburg, MD: National Fatherhood Initiative.
59. In re the Marriage of Burgess. 913 P.2d 473 (Cal. 1966).
60. Kay, H. H. (2000). From the second sex to the joint venture: An overview of women's rights and family law in the United States during the twentieth century. California Law Review, 88, 2017-2093.
61. Kelly, J. B., & Emery, R. E. (2003). Children's adjustment following divorce: Risk and resilience perspective. Family Relations, 52, 352-362.
62. Kintz, L. (1997). Between Jesus and the market: The emotions that matter in right-wing America. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
63. Kirn, W. (2000, September 25). Should you stay together for the kids? Time Canada, 156, 42-48.
64. Kleinberg, S. J. (1999). Women in the United States, 1830-1945. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
65. Kreider, R. M., & Fields, J. M. (2001). Number, timing, and duration of marriages and divorces: Fall 1996. (Current Population Reports, Series P70-80). Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau.
66. Kurz, D. (1995). For richer, for poorer: Mothers confront divorce. New York: Routledge.
67. Lacey, L. J. (1992). Mandatory marriage "for the sake of the children": A feminist reply to Elizabeth Scott. Tulane Law Review, 66, 1435-1465.
68. Lakoff, G. (2002). Moral politics: How liberals and conservatives think. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
69. Levine, S. (2002, January 22). D-I-V-O-R-C-E gets some R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Psychologist finds families rebound. The Washington Post, p. C01.
70. Magnuson, E. (1983, September 5). Child abuse: The ultimate betrayal. Time 142, 20-22.
71. Marra, J. M. (Ed.). (1980-1999). Readers' guide to periodical literature: An author and subject index, 39-58. New York: H. W. Wilson.
72. Masci, D. (2001). Evangelical Christians. CQ Researcher, 11, 715-726.
73. Mason, M. A. (1994). From father's property to children's rights: The history of child custody in the United States. New York: Columbia University Press.
74. McCarthy, E. D. (1996). Knowledge as culture: The new sociology of knowledge. London: Routledge.
75. McCarthy, J. D., Wolfson, M., Baker, D. P., & Mosakowski, E. (1988). The founding of social movement organizations: Local citizens' groups opposing drunken driving. In G. R. Carroll (Ed.), Ecological models of organizations (pp. 71-84). Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.
76. Mills, C. W. (1959). The sociological imagination. New York: Oxford University Press.
77. National newspaper index. (1977-2002). Retrieved December 10, 2002, from InfoTrac/Gale Group database.
78. Pew Research Center. (2002). Americans struggle with religion's role at home and abroad. Retrieved August 14, 2002, from http://people-press.org/reports
79. Pollitt, K. (2000, September 25). Is divorce getting a bum rap? Time, 156(13), 82.
80. Popenoe, D. (1996). Life without father: Compelling new evidence that father-hood and marriage are indispensable for the good of children and society. New York; Martin Kessler/Free Press.
81. Popenoe, D., Elshtain, J. B., & Blankenhorn, D. (1996). Promises to keep: Decline and renewal of marriage in America. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Little-field.
82. Readers' guide to periodical literature: An author and subject index, Quarterly cumulative issue 102, 3, 6, 9. (2002, May, August, November), New York: H. W. Wilson.
83. Russo, M. (2001). The marriage hoax: Conservative moralists, alarmed by the divorce rate, want us to return to a golden age of marriage. Too bad it never existed. Salon.com Magazine. Retrieved August 12, 2002, from http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2001/03/19/divorce/print.html
84. Schneider, J. W. (1985). Social problems theory: The constructionist view. Annual Review of Sociology, 11, 209-229.
85. Schur, E. M. (1984). Labeling women deviant: Gender, stigma, and social control. New York: McGraw-Hill.
86. Seccombe, K. (1999). "So you think I drive a Cadillac?": Welfare recipients' perspectives on the system and its reform. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
87. Shammas, C. (1994). Re-assessing the married women's property acts. Journal of Women's History, 6, 9-30.
88. Social sciences citation index. (1975 to present). Retrieved December 10, 2002, from ISI Web of Knowledge database.
89. Spector, M., & Kitsuse, J. I. (1987). Constructing social problems. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.
90. Spitz, R. (1945). Hospitalism: An inquiry into the genesis of psychiatric conditions in early childhood. Psychoanalytic Studies of the Child, 1, 53-74.
91. Stacey, J. (1996). In the name of the family: Rethinking family values in the postmodern age. Boston: Beacon Press.
92. Straus, M. A. (1994). Beating the devil out of them: Corporal punishment in American families. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
93. Toulmin, S. (1958). The uses of argument. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
94. Waite, L. J., & Gallagher, M. (2000). The case for marriage: Why married people are happier, healthier, and better off financially. New York: Doubleday.
95. Walker, A. J. (2000). Refracted knowledge: Viewing families through the prism of social science. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62, 595-608.
96. Wallerstein, J., Lewis, J., & Blakeslee, S. (2000). The unexpected legacy of divorce: A 25 year landmark study. New York: Hyperion.
97. Wallerstein, J. S., & Kelly, J. B. (1980). Surviving the breakup: How children and parents cope with divorce. New York: Basic Books.
98. Wallerstein, J. S., & Tanke, T. J. (1996). To move or not to move: Psychological and legal considerations in the relocation of children following divorce. Family Law Quarterly, 30, 305-332.
99. Warshak, R. A. (2000). Social science and children's best interests in relocation cases: Burgess revisited. Family Law Quarterly, 34, 83-113.
100. Weitzman, L. J. (1985). The divorce revolution: The unexpected social and economic consequences for women and children in America. New York: Free Press.
101. Welter, B. (1966). The cult of true womanhood: 1820-1860. American Quarterly, 18(2, part 1), 151-174.
102. Woolsey, T. D. (1869). Essay on divorce and divorce legislation, with special reference to the United States. New York: Scribner.
103. Zelizer, V. A. (1985). Pricing the priceless child: The changing social value of children. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.