Marital Reconciliation in the United States: Which Couples Are Successful?

The resolutions of separation: Are marital reconciliations attempted?

“…For example, education, age at first separation, parity, and a previous marriage by the husband have a significant relationship with the probability of attempting a reconciliation; yet, previous research shows that these variables are not related to the success of an attempted reconciliation (Wineberg 1994). Rather, women who have the same religion as their husband, those in a marriage in which either spouse changed religion in connection with marrying, and those who cohabit with their spouse before marriage have a significantly increased probability of having a successful reconciliation (Wineberg 1994); women marrying an older man are significantly less likely to have a successful reconciliation. However, these variables are not related to whether or not a separated woman attempts a reconciliation.…”

“…That about 44% of the separated white women may attempt a reconciliation suggests that for every 100 white women who marry for the first time about 24 will experience a separation and reconciliation (0.55,0.44) and about 31 (0.55,0.56) will become separated and not attempt a reconciliation. Approximately 8 of the 24 women who attempt a reconciliation may be expected to be successful (Wineberg 1994). Consequently, about 53 of every 100 women who enter into a first marriage may still be married to their first husband when they or their husbands die (45 are continuously married and 8 have had a successful reconciliation).…”

“…We are not concerned with the successfulness of the reconciliation; the issue of successful reconciliations has been addressed in a previous paper by Wineberg (1994). A separate analysis was not performed for reconciliations attempted by men because marital data (and other data) reported by men are considered less reliable and precise than marital data reported by women (Cherlin et al 1983;Sweet 1990).…”

“…By weighting the data the percentages shown in Table 1 are representative of the United States population. The tabulations of reconciliation are done separately by sociodemographic variables that previous researchers suggest may be related to marital dissolution, marital experiences, or the success of an attempted reconciliation (Lehrer & Chiswick 1993;Martin & Bumpass 1989;Norton & Moorman 1987;South & Spitze 1986;Teachman 1986;Wineberg 1994). These variables are: age at first separation, parity at first separation, duration between marriage and first separation, age at first marriage, education, premarital fertility, frequency of religious attendance, religion difference between spouses, age difference between spouses, cohabitation experience with spouse, marital history of spouse, and whether or not either spouse changed religion after marrying.…”

“…They found that among currently married women about 9% of whites and 14% of blacks (or about 5 million currently married couples) had experienced a separation and reconciliation in their marriage. Wineberg (1994) used National Survey of Families and Households data to examine the characteristics of white women who had a successful reconciliation. He found that about one-third of the women attempting a marital reconciliation were still married to their husband more than one year after the reconciliation began.…”