1. Chapter 14 Coming Apart: Separation and Divorce Key Terms

2. Ratio measure of divorce Calculated by taking the number of divorces and the number of marriages in a given year and producing a ratio to represent how often divorce occurs relative to marriage. Crude divorce rate Represents the number of divorces in a given year for every 1,000 people in the population.

3. Predictive divorce rate A calculation that allows researchers to estimate how many new marriages will likely end in divorce. Refined divorce rate Measures the number of divorces that occur in a given year for every 1,000 marriages (as measured by married women aged 15 and older).

4. Social integration The degree of interaction between individuals and the larger community. Intergenerational transmission Those whose parents divorce are subject to an increased likelihood that divorce will later occur to them.

5. Separation distress Situational anxiety caused by separation from an attachment figure. No-fault divorce The legal dissolution of a marriage in which guilt or fault by one or both spouses does not have to be established.

6. Alimony The money payment a former spouse makes to the other to meet his or her economic needs. Child support The monetary payments made by the noncustodial spouse to the custodial spouse to assist in childrearing expenses.

7. Sole custody The child lives with one parent, who has sole responsibility for physically raising the child and making all decisions regarding his or her upbringing. Joint custody In which both parents continue to share legal rights and responsibilities.

8. Joint legal custody The children live primarily with one parent, but both share jointly in decisions about their children’s education, religious training, and general upbringing. Joint physical custody The children live with both parents, dividing time more-or-less equally between the two households.

9. Split custody The children are divided between the two parents; the mother usually takes the girls and the father, the boys. Divorce mediation Process in which a mediator attempts to assist divorcing couples in resolving personal, legal, and parenting issues in a cooperative manner.

10. Covenant marriage Attempts to reduce the divorce rate by strengthening the marriage commitment.