It is based on a comparison of all divorces that occur in a single year(regardless of when the couples were married) against the number of new marriages in the same year As the second column of Table 13-1 indicates, there were about 51 di vorces in the United States in 1999 for every 100 new mar riages. But that could, in fact, represent 51 divorces for every 3,000 marriages in the decades leading up to 1999 We get a more accurate perspective on divorce if we ex amine the number of divorces per married women ages 1 to 44(see the third column in Table 13-1). Using these sta tistics, we can see that the number of divorces per l,000 married women in this age group has almost doubled over the past 39 years. Nevertheless, about half of every 10 marriages remain intact; about two-thirds of divorced women and three-fourths of divorced men eventually remarry. Women are less likely to remarry because many retain custody of children after a divorce, which complicates establishing a new adult relationship(Bianchi and Spain 1996) Some people regard the nation's high rate of remar riage as an endorsement of the institution of marriage but it does lead to the new challenges of a remarriage kin network composed of current and prior marital relationships. This network can be particularly complex if chil dren are involved or if an ex-spouse remarries. The current high divorce rate of the United States is not the result of a sudden explosion; rather, signs of such a tendency showed up early in the nation's history. Residents