Dollars, Dependency and Divorce: Assessing Five Perspectives on the Effects of Wives' Income on Divorce

Stacy Rogers, Pennsylvania State University

This research assesses the predictive utility of five perspectives that have guided previous research on the effects of wives' income on marital stability. Hypotheses are tested using event history methods and 1980-1997 panel data for 1,704 individuals from the Marital Instability Over the Life Course study. The association between wives' percentage income and the odds of divorce is an inverted U-shape in which wives' perceived economic independence and the odds of divorce are highest when wives contribute between forty and sixty percent of the total family income. When wives' contributions are lower, increases in income are significantly associated with wives' greater perceived independence and greater odds of divorce. When wives' contributions reach approximately sixty percent, their perceived economic independence fails to increase and the odds of divorce decline. These findings underscore the need for greater attention to issues of economic dependence in understanding marriage and divorce.