A think-tank paper said that the collapse of cohabiting relationships – rather than divorce – was responsible for the 'surge' in lone parenthood, and for most of the costs to the public purse of family breakdown.
Source: Harry Benson, Family Breakdown in the UK: It's NOT about divorce, Centre for Social Justice
Links: Paper | CSJ press release | CLS press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2010-Dec
A number of European Union countries adopted new regulations permitting divorcing international couples to choose which EU country's laws governed their divorce – provided it was a jurisdiction to which they had a close connexion, such as habitual residence or nationality. The rules would apply in 14 European Union countries, not including the United Kingdom.
Source: Press release 20 December 2010, European Union
Links: Regulation | European Council press release | European Commission press release | GPASD press release
Notes: This was the first instance of European Union countries concluding legislation under the 'enhanced co-operation' mechanism – allowing 9 or more member states to move forward on a measure that was important to them but which was blocked on the basis of the normal voting rules.
Date: 2010-Dec
A briefing paper examined pre-nuptial (or pre-marital) agreements – agreements made by couples before marriage, setting out how they wished their assets to be divided if they should divorce.
Source: Catherine Fairbairn, Pre-Nuptial Agreements, Standard Note SN/HA/3752, House of Commons Library
Links: Link removed
Date: 2010-Nov
An article examined the trend towards 50/50 shared residence by children becoming the 'normative model' for organizing post-separation family life. Greater use of 50/50 shared residence was neither supported by the empirical evidence on children's welfare nor by the 'vociferous rights-based arguments of disaffected fathers'.
Source: Sonia Harris-Short, 'Resisting the march towards 50/50 shared residence: rights, welfare and equality in post-separation families', Journal of Social Welfare & Family Law, Volume 32 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Oct
An article examined the effect of union dissolution on the occurrence of house moves, changes of dwelling type, and the probability of moving out of owner-occupation. Those who divorced experienced a larger drop in housing quality than did those who split up from cohabitation. Starting a new relationship led to more upward moves in the housing career compared with remaining divorced or split-up.
Source: Peteke Feijten and Maarten van Ham, 'The impact of splitting up and divorce on housing careers in the UK', Housing Studies, Volume 25 Number 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Jul
Researchers examined the factors underlying couple relationship breakdown. The main difficulties reported by study participants concerned the transition to parenthood and the challenges of raising children; finance; health and well-being; the influences of in-laws, family, and friends; and infidelity. Two key issues were the unequal balance of control in a relationship and poor communication.
Source: Josephine Ramm, Lester Coleman, Fiona Glenn and Penny Mansfield, Relationship Difficulties and Help-Seeking Behaviour: Secondary analysis of an existing data-set, Research Report RR018, Department for Education
Date: 2010-Jul
A think-tank report said that marriage did not contribute much to making relationships more stable when children were young. Analysis of data from the Millennium Cohort Study showed that although cohabiting parents were more likely to split up than married ones, there was little evidence that marriage per se was the cause of greater stability between parents, or that encouraging more people to get married would result in fewer couples splitting up.
Source: Alissa Goodman and Ellen Greaves, Cohabitation, Marriage and Relationship Stability, Briefing Note 107, Institute for Fiscal Studies
Links: Briefing Note | IFS press release
Date: 2010-Jul
A report said that the annual societal cost of relationship breakdown was £37 billion.
Source: When Relationships Go Wrong: Counting the cost of family failure, Relationships Foundation
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Jun
An article examined whether and how fathers' contributions to unpaid work were associated with divorce. Fathers' home production was found to stabilize marriage regardless of mothers' employment statuses.
Source: Wendy Sigle-Rushton, 'Men's unpaid work and divorce: reassessing specialization and trade in British families', Feminist Economics, Volume 16 Issue 2
Links: Abstract | LSE press release
Date: 2010-May
A study examined the views of children and young people regarding press access to, and reporting of, family court proceedings. The findings indicated that substantial problems were likely to arise for children and young people, with serious implications for children's safety and welfare. Almost all the children and young people interviewed (96 per cent) said that once they were told that a reporter might be in court they would be unwilling, or less willing, to talk to a clinician about ill-treatment or disputes about their care, or about their wishes and feelings.
Source: Julia Brophy, The Views of Children and Young People Regarding Media Access to Family Courts, Office of the Children's Commissioner
Links: Report | OCC press release | Oxford University press release
Date: 2010-Mar
A briefing paper said that the annual cost of family failure was £41.7 billion – through tax credit and benefit payments, and additional costs in housing, health and social care, and crime.
Source: Counting the Cost of Family Failure, Relationship Foundation
Links: Briefing | Telegraph report
Date: 2010-Feb
A report examined how children and young people felt about going through the divorce and separation of their parents, and how they could be better supported throughout the process. Many young people felt that family and friends, particularly grandparents, had an important role to play in providing continuing support. They also identified the importance of being able to talk to an independent person who they could trust.
Source: Private Law Consultation: "How It Looks To Me", Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service
Links: Report | CAFCASS press release | Children & Young People Now report
Date: 2010-Feb
The number of divorces in England and Wales fell by 5 per cent in 2008 to 121,779 compared with 128,232 in 2007. This was the fifth consecutive year that the number of divorces had fallen, from a peak of 153,176 in 2003, and was the lowest number since 1975 when there were 120,522 divorces. The number of divorces was highest among men and women aged 40 to 44.
Source: Divorces in England and Wales: 2008, Office for National Statistics
Links: Report | BBC report
Date: 2010-Jan
A qualitative study examined how adults formed and managed relationships; the factors that could damage these relationships; and how adults coped with these stresses. It sought to identify the relationship support needs of adults in different personal circumstances, and in a variety of relationship types; and to gather evidence that could guide the development of new policy initiatives to support adult couple relationships, particularly those of parents.
Source: Janet Walker, Helen Barrett, Graeme Wilson and Yan-Shing Chang, Understanding the Needs of Adults (Particularly Parents) Regarding Relationship Support, Research Brief RBX-10-01, Department for Children, Schools and Families
Links: Brief
Date: 2010-Jan