title: Marital dissolution by sex of the petitioner: a test of the man-child affiliative bond.
abstract: The problems in disentangling the tabula rasa explanations, as opposed to the biocultural explanations, in the understanding and prediction of human behavior are deep, real, and difficult. This study tested two conflicting sets of predictions concerning divorce patterns in the United States: a socioeconomic set and a biocultural set. The socio-economic perspective predicts that the addition of one or more children to a marriage would increase the husband's (as compared with the wife's) motivation to petition for a divorce. The biocultural perspective posits that a man-to-child affiliative bond would add to a man's adherence to his child(ren) and, in turn, would lower his motivation (as compared with the woman's) to petition for a divorce. The biocultural perspective was supported in this study.
authors.affiliation: Division of Social Sciences, El Paso Community College, TX 79998.
authors.forename: W C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Mackey
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004243:Divorce / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology*; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005219:Father-Child Relations; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D009769:Object Attachment; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors