Divorce
W. Bradford Wilcox, a sociologist at the University of Virginia, has a very good piece in the National Interest on the consequences of divorce. It is not pretty.
The divorce revolution’s collective consequences for children are striking. Taking into account both divorce and non-marital childbearing, sociologist Paul Amato estimates that if the United States enjoyed the same level of family stability today as it did in 1960, the nation would have 750,000 fewer children repeating grades, 1.2 million fewer school suspensions, approximately 500,000 fewer acts of teenage delinquency, about 600,000 fewer kids receiving therapy, and approximately 70,000 fewer suicides every year. As Amato concludes, turning back the family-stability clock just a few decades could significantly improve the lives of many children.