Mothers: Widowed vs Divorced

[Anonymous 18]

Journal of Marriage and Family

Volume 62, Issue 2, pages 533–548, May 2000

Family Structure and Children’s Success: A Comparison of Widowed and Divorced Single-Mother Families

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Compared with children raised in single-mother families created by the death of the father, children raised in divorced single-mother families have significantly lower levels of education, occupational status, and happiness in adulthood. Yet divorced single mothers are not significantly different than their widowed counterparts in child rearing, gender role, and family values and in religiosity, health-related behaviors, and other dimensions of lifestyle. However, relative to widowed single mothers, divorced single mothers hold lower occupational positions, are more financially stressed, and have a higher rate of participation in the paid labor force. We speculate that the contrasting positions in the social structure of different types of single-mother families may account for observed differences in child outcomes.

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Confounding variables I can think of:

-Large sum of life insurance $$ widow receives BUT divorced women have CS payments + alimony + house

-A widow likely is much older than the divorced parent if the husband died of natural causes. BUT by that time the children are already grown and moved out and on their own

So a flaky wife = a flaky mom?

Original link:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2000.00533.x/abstract;jsessionid=4538618AD56571A1D3DCB6EEBC20DF06.f03t03?systemMessage=Wiley+Online+Library+will+be+disrupted+on+11th+July+2015+at+10%3A00-16%3A00+BST+%2F+05%3A00-11%3A00+EDT+%2F+17%3A00-23%3A00+SGT+for+essential+maintenance.+However+there+may+be+a+possible+delay+so+the+start+time+may+change.++Apologies+for+the+inconvenience.&userIsAuthenticated=false&deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=

[Anonymous 11]

Go with widowed as you’ll know she won’t be banging her ex husband behind your back, and you don’t have to worry about him trying to kill you if he were psycho.

[Anonymous 18]

Anonymous wrote:

Go with widowed as you’ll know she won’t be banging her ex husband behind your back, and you don’t have to worry about him trying to kill you if he were psycho.

Lol I have zero intention of going with either. Just a sweet study (although decade and a half ago) explaining away failures of women at marriage and child rearing.

 

[Anonymous 11]

I once dated a widow for a year. It was better than my divorcee dating experiences. You’re right about choosing none of the above. Still having an ex pushing up daisies is better if one were to do it.

Both are still women though.

[LightBringerParticipant 440]

Never dated a widow, but I would think they would carry an endless torch about ‘how good he was’, with a divorcee its a wild card, but remember it generally takes two to tango and he wanted her out of there for some reason.

[Anonymous 11]

The one I dated hated her abusive dead ex. Attractive mid 30s childless Asian. We got along really well, and she wasn’t a slut. She ended up having to move due to a job. I chose to stay by the sea. She was actually a decent person. Her husband died of a drug overdose.

[sidecarParticipant 35837]

Is anyone surprised? Widows are single mothers by accident. Divorced mothers, by and large, are single mothers BY INTENT. So divorced mothers have a proven track record of making poor life choices (and worse).

[Author]

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