Aalyiah Alfaro, & Dr. Lindsey Trimble O’Connor
This research project explores the realities of men and women that marry at a young age and their life satisfaction following divorce from that marriage. It is known that the repercussions of divorce often include deteriorated physical and psychological conditions predominantly found within those that do not initiate the decision (Frisby, Butterfield, Dilow, Martin, and Weber 2012). This can be stemmed from the notion that divorce is often viewed in a negative connotation; it is seen as a decision that contradicts the traditional marital standards of society, a decision that appears as an “easy” way out from dissolution of marriage (Ellison, Wolfinger, and Ramos-Wada 2012). In consideration, the research question for this project examines the relationship between gender, marrying at a young age, and life satisfaction post divorce. I hypothesize that women that marry at a young age and divorce at a young age will experience higher levels of life satisfaction compared to men following divorce. I conduct a secondary data analysis of The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). It is a longitudinal study that follows the lives of more than twenty-thousand adolescents in grades seventh through twelfth grade. The focus for this research is on the Third Wave (2001-2002). In this period, the sample was aged 18-26 years old. The data was restricted to analyze men and women who had married once and whose marriage resulted in divorce. Such restrictions resulted in a sample size of 63 participants. Variables in this study account for gender and divorce status, and measured life satisfaction. A means comparison test was conducted to measure the relationship between gender and life satisfaction. Results amounting in a significant value of 0.746 which is > p-value of 0.05 and a mean difference of -.0769.The results failed to reject the null hypothesis of the study, finding that there is no significant relationship between gender and life satisfaction among those who married and divorced young. Proceeding forward, future research should aim to account for distinct ethnic/racial groups and see if there is variation between the groups to further develop literature and findings.