Along with infidelity, complaints about the general quality of the marital
relationship—incompatibility, growing apart, personality clashes, and
lack of communication—figure prominently in people’s accounts of divorce.
These perceived causes are similar to the general category of irreconcilable
differences (or some equivalent term) which is the only grounds
for obtaining a no-fault divorce. Other commonly reported causes of divorce
refer to drinking, drug use, mental cruelty, and physical abuse. Although
nearly all the divorces in this study occurred after the passage of
no-fault divorce laws, these perceived causes are similar to the legal
grounds for divorce that existed in most states under the earlier fault regime.
It appears, therefore, that even in an era of no-fault divorce, faultbased
reasons continue to feature prominently in many people’s subjective
accounts of marital breakdown.