Chapter 15 Divorce Key Terms

Divorce –The legal ending of a valid marriage contract. Crude divorce rate –A statement of how many divorces have occurred for every 1,000 people in the population. Refined divorce rate –An expression of the number of divorces and annulments in a given year divided by the number of married women in the population times 1,000.

Satiation (Habituation) –Refers to the state in which a stimulus loses its value with repeated exposure. Shared parenting dysfunction –The set of behaviors on the part of each parent (embroiled in a divorce) that are focused on hurting the other parent and are counterproductive to the well-being of the child.

Parental alienation syndrome –A disturbance in which children are obsessively preoccupied with deprecation and/or criticism of a parent, denigration that is unjustified and/or exaggerated. Family relations doctrine –Suggests that even nonbiological parents may be awarded custody or visitation rights if they have been economically and emotionally involved in the life of the child.

Divorce mediation –A process in which spouses who have decided to separate or divorce meet with a neutral third party (mediator) to negotiate the issues of (1) child custody and visitation, (2) child support, (3) property settlement, and (4) spousal support.

Annulment –An annulment returns the spouses to their premarital status. Bigamy –Marriage to more than one person at the same time.

Formal separation –A legal separation with a lawyer’s involvement in the agreement. Informal separation –Similar to a legal separation except that no lawyer is involved in the agreement.

Desertion –Desertion differs from informal separation in that the deserter walks out and breaks off all contact.