Divorce: Dissected in Ethnicity and Community - Research Paper Example

Many studies have analyzed the trends in divorce through community attributes other than the individual character of the person undergoing the crisis. In this case, divorce variations depending on the ethnic background are viewed. The U.S. Census Bureau presented the year 2001 statistics of the marital history for people 15 years and over, by age, sex, race, and Hispanic origin. Included groups of people are White, non-Hispanic White, Black, Asian, and Hispanic of any race. Concentrating on the total population of the “Ever divorced” characteristic of both men and women from 15 years to over 70, data show that regardless of gender, non-Hispanic Whites had the highest percentage of the specific characteristic, and Asians had the lowest. The literature on reasons why there is a high divorce rate in non-Hispanic Whites is very scarce but culture is a probable factor.

With the acceptance of the actin non-Hispanic communities, it is not unusual for couples to break the ties of marriage. On the other hand, there are more articles stating that the small number of divorced Asians in the United States has been pointed out to the cultural upbringing of the said group. Dickerson states that many Asian women live in communities where “many frowns on a practice that many Americans find much more acceptable” (qt. in Silverstein). In the case of conservative cultures as such, we can see that the sanctity of marriage still overpowers divorce.

Also, in establishing a link between ethnicity and divorce, there seems to plenty of discussions established with Blacks, as they are cited by many types of research and statistical data as not engaging in further remarriage and are economically affected. Despite that, there are no cumulative statistics showing overall urban-rural distinctions in divorce, but rather rates per state only, it is a general finding that urban areas generally have higher divorce rates as compared to rural neighborhoods.