Who’s Afraid of Divorce? Sexual Minority Young Adults’ Perspectives on Divorce

Aaron Hoy, Sachita Pokhrel and Jori Adrianna Nkwenti
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Aaron Hoy: Department of Sociology, Minnesota State University, Mankato, MN 56001, USA
Sachita Pokhrel: Department of Sociology, Minnesota State University, Mankato, MN 56001, USA
Jori Adrianna Nkwenti: Department of Sociology, Minnesota State University, Mankato, MN 56001, USA

Social Sciences, 2021, vol. 10, issue 12, 1-16

Abstract: Research suggests that young adults commonly approve of divorce but still feel anxious about the possibility of divorcing themselves due to anticipated emotional and financial repercussions. However, the existing research focuses exclusively on heterosexual young adults, which is a significant oversight given the recent legalization of same-sex marriage. As such, we rely primarily on qualitative data from an online survey of unmarried sexual minority young adults (n = 257) to examine how they think about divorce. Our results suggest that sexual minority young adults have somewhat distinct perspectives compared to heterosexual young adults. In particular, they anticipate being quite willing to divorce under a broad set of circumstances, and they report minimal anxieties regarding the prospect of divorce. Given documented associations between attitudes toward divorce in young adulthood and subsequent relational behavior (e.g., cohabitation, marital delay), we conclude by discussing what our results suggest about sexual minority young adults’ relationships in the era of marriage equality.

Keywords: sexual minorities; LGBT; young adulthood; divorce; life course theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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