Socioeconomic status. With respect to SES, predivorce income was
negatively associated with reports of abuse and positively associated with
reports of personality clashes. In addition, education was positively associated
with reports of incompatibility. These results are consistent with the
616 JOURNAL OF FAMILY ISSUES / July 2003
TABLE 4
Correlates of Reported Causes of Divorce
Cause of Divorce Variable r
Infidelity Religiosity 0.14**
Wife respondent 0.11*
Incompatible Age married 0.20***
Education 0.17**
Years married –0.16**
Religiosity –0.15**
Alcohol or drugs Children in household 0.20***
Age married –0.14**
Wife respondent 0.13*
Grew apart Years married 0.17**
Age married –0.14**
Personality Years married –0.13*
Predivorce income 0.11*
Communication Conservative attitudes 0.14**
Wife respondent –0.12*
Abuse Wife respondent 0.19***
Predivorce income –0.18**
Children in household 0.17**
Conservative attitudes 0.16**
Predivorce marital happiness –0.15**
Don’t know Wife respondent –0.24****
NOTE: N = 208. Significance tests are two-tailed.
*p < .10. **p < .05. ***p < .01. ****p < .001.
notion that high-SES individuals are more likely than low-SES individuals
to report relationship-centered (rather than instrumental) reasons for
divorce.