Gender and causal attributions. The demographic, life course, and attitudinal
variables were not associated with the causal categories, with the
exception of gender.Women were about twice as likely as men to refer to
their former spouses as having caused the divorce (40% vs. 21%). Furthermore,
women were only about one seventh as likely as men to refer to
themselves as having caused the divorce (1.5% vs. 10%). Although not as
dramatic, women were less likely than men to refer to relationship problems
(24% vs. 33%), andwomen were about as likely as men to refer to external
factors (10% vs. 8%). The overall gender differencewas significant
(χ2 = 14.94, df = 4, p < .01). These results indicate that individuals of both
genders were more likely to attribute the origin of the problem to the former
spouse than to themselves, but this tendency was stronger for women
than for men.