Author(s): Alexis Holt
Mentor(s): Todd Spencer
Institution UVU
Divorce has been a widely studied topic with the bulk of attention examining the impacts of divorce on both adults and children (Amato, 2014). One specific area of interest within the divorce literature is the exploring the couple dynamics surrounding divorce initiation process. Typically the partner who initiates the divorce experiences better post-divore outcomes compared to the non-intiating partner (Doherty et al., 2011). One link that has not been explored is the relationship between early life trauma and likihood to initate the divorce process as an adult. One of the most commonly used measures of early maltreatment is the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Questionnaire (Dube, Felitti, Dong, & Giles, 2003). ACEs is a 10 item measure of individuals’ early exposure to child abuse, neglect, poverty, and problematic family dynamics (Murphey et al., 2014). ACEs have been associated with declines in physical and mental health in adulthood (Steele et al., 2016). Furthermore, researchers have found that having four or more ACEs is associated with significant declines in physical health, relationship quality, and wellbeing (Murphey et al., 2014). The present study explores if level of trauma influences the divorce initiation status. The present study utilized Chi-square analysis to examine divorce initiation status based on level of trauma. Participants consist of 299 parents (females = 204, males = 95) who legally divorced from their marriage partners. Participants previously participated in a university sponsored co-parenting class and completed a follow-up survey. The mean age of participants are 36 years old (SD = 7.02) and have been divorced for an average of 1.5 years. Results indicate that 62% of high trauma and 70% of the low trauma groups initiated the divorce. Additionally, 21% of high trauma and 15% of the low trauma reported their partner initiated the divorce. Finally, 16% of high trauma and 15% of low trauma reported that the decision to divorce was mutual.