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NEWS > HEALTH > PRE-TEEN DIVORCE RATES REACH ALL-TIME HIGH
PRE-TEEN DIVORCE RATES REACH ALL-TIME HIGH
May 21 2009
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – Divorce is never an easy thing. Families are torn apart, children are left emotionally scarred, and some would say the very fabric of the union is damaged every time a divorce happens. Despite that, divorce is becoming ever more common across the planet even in traditionally conservative countries like Saudi 
Arabia. Now, with the recent divorce of an 8-year old girl from her middle aged husband, divorce is settling in at an ever increasing pace amongst the world’s pre-teens.
The Saudi case sparked international attention both before and after the divorce in large part due to the one-sided nature of the decision. The husband steadfastly declined to assent to the separation but a court settled on the side of the wife, a surprise to many in this country ruled by Sharia Law. Traditionally courts in the country find in favour of the husband and this decision marks the first time a pre-teen divorce has been granted at the wife’s request, marking what many see as a dangerous precedent for divorce in general.
“Divorce has become so commonplace in most of the world that many people don’t even give it a second thought. Everyone knows someone who either is divorced or has parents that are divorced. In some ways it’s a shame but it is one of the realities of life in the modern world and that reality is now affecting all countries no matter their religious or social views of 
marriage,” said Scrape TV Family Values analyst Marge Hendricks. “Traditionally divorces have been amongst older couples but the more and more we are seeing an increase amongst younger people. The reasons for that are up for debate. It may be the normalized nature of divorce, it could be a decreased reliance on marriage, or it could be that young people make poor decisions and now have an out. Regardless of the reasons, divorce is on the rise and we are seeing a massive uptick in divorce rates amongst pre-teens worldwide.”
Divorce rates vary around the world due in large part to differing laws, differing religious perspectives, and relative economic prosperity. In 
many countries the increase in co-habitation without marriage has increased dramatically, cutting into the divorce rate. Though exact numbers of pre-teen co-habitation are hard to determine, estimates of divorce rates put the number at approximately 50 per cent and rising.
“The data amongst the pre-teen set has a lot of gaps. Traditionally younger people are more prone to co-habitation without marriage and remain in that state for longer periods of time and so the actual number of marriages is low compared to the rest of the population,” continued Hendricks. “Part of the problem may lie in the 
traditional cause of most divorces, the problem of compatibility. Age difference quite often plays a major role in compatibility issues and that is likely a major cause of the increasing divorce rate. One can’t rule out media influence and the impact of people like Britney Spears but it’s more than likely that traditional factors play the largest role, as it likely was in the Saudi case.”
One upside to the uptick in divorce amongst the younger set is the relative lack of children caught up the middle of the warring couple, long seen as the most devastating result of the dissolution of marriages.
“Broken families can be problematic and can set up future divorces amongst those 
affected but luckily in the case of pre-teen marriages that is rarely an issue in that age group due to the fact that they have not yet reached puberty and are therefore incapable of procreating,” continued Hendricks. “That is the one positive that can be drawn from this data. If indeed coming from a divorced family does increase that odds of broken marriage at least these cases won’t be contributing to those numbers. The one major risk though may be in the attitudes towards marriage. The last thing anyone wants is for 8-year olds to be disillusioned about the institution.”
Reports also indicate that pre-teen marriage rates have also been declining in Saudi Arabia over the last few years.
Lauren Hebert, Health Correspondent
NEWS > HEALTH > PRE-TEEN DIVORCE RATES REACH ALL-TIME HIGH
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