10 - Religious Parents Who Divorce

Summary

This chapter draws upon divorce pleadings and other records to show how indications of religion appearing in custody agreements and orders affect subsequent proceedings and legal activities. Some observations are normative, but most are merely descriptive and some may be correlative rather than caused by the indicated concern about religion. Divorcing couples specifying religious upbringing in their parenting plans tended to be wealthier, to come from lengthier marriages, to settle cases before litigation more often, to share custody more, and to have less domestic violence reported either prior to or following divorce. They were more likely to divorce alleging substance abuse or mental illness, and were more likely to seek reductions of the noncustodial parent’s time with the children following final decrees, particularly when fathers were relatively poorer. The noncustodial parent was more likely to seek support relief at a child’s reaching adulthood In general, while the pattern is complex, these parents seem like good and thoughtful parents, divorcing only when they needed to and minimizing conflict that the children would see or experience.