Does contraception cause infidelity and/or divorce?

Question

Related: Natural family planning and divorce rates

A friend of mine attended Catholic Mass today and shared that the homily was entirely about contraception. From her summary, the gist was that the priest suggested that artificial contraception has directly contributed to increases in divorce and infidelity among married couples.

To back this up, here's some other similar statements:

Janet Smith, Catholic Education Resource Center

Why did the divorce rate double between the 1960s and the 1970s? ... If 80 percent of women are using some form of contraception, that makes a lot of women and a lot of men think that there is no problem with having sex with someone who is married to someone else. Many people had multiple sexual partners before they married. They don't see any particular reason to stop after they get married. Because, you see, sex was no big deal before they got married. There's no particular reason to think that it's a big deal after marriage.

Catholic-Pages

The widespread problem of divorce in modern society can be laid fairly and squarely at the feet of the contraceptive mentality and the warped view of self, sexuality and married love that it entails. Proof of this can be seen in the extremely low divorce rates among couples who do not use contraception.

Catholic Source

But the evidence is clear that this is not the case. Even as early as four years after contraceptives were first tested, researchers found that marriages in which contraceptives were used were twice as likely to end in divorce than marriages in which there was no contraceptive use. (Grant MD, Ellen Sexual Chemistry: Understanding Our Hormones, The Pill, and HRT. Mandarin Paperbacks, London, 1994.)

...

Artificial birth control also opened the door for an increase in pre-marital sex and adulterous relations.

There are some great responses and issues addressed at the related question about NFP divorce rates above, however I'd like to focus specifically on the historical divorce and infidelity rates and ask:

Have any studies focused on/attempted to specifically isolate whether or not contraceptives alone have caused (in part or whole) these rate increases?

In other words, has some study been able to conclude that, on average, some Persons A and B will divorce or be unfaithful in marriage in the presence of readily available contraceptives, but otherwise wouldn't have done so?

There is rarely a single cause of divorce. Divorces tend to be caused by a build of of lots of issues over time. I would note that the divorce rates in areas where personal responsibility is the norm rather than the exception is much lower. Sadly many of these areas also have less rights for women making an apple to apple comparison impossible. — Chad, Mar 05 '12 at 14:15
I think the premise of the question is mistaken; IIRC although divorce rates _were_ on the rise until the early 1990's (like pretty much every other measure poor social condition, like crime rates) they've leveled off and dropped since then. I was reading something about this earlier (more specifically, that there was no "golden age" in the 1960's), I'll look it up later and post an answer maybe. — Tacroy, Mar 05 '12 at 21:44
I think the general argument is weak because it confuses correlation with causation. Many things changed at the same time as the availability of contraception. Some countries didn't even legalise *either* until recently (e.g. Republic of Ireland didn't revoke the constitutional prohibition on divorce until 1996 less than a decade after legalising any form of contraception). — matt_black, Mar 05 '12 at 22:56
@Tacroy: Your comment would be awesome if you end up looking the info back up and turning it into an answer! — Hendy, Mar 05 '12 at 23:16
@matt_black: I agree, though it'd be nice to definitively answer in this vein. Both your line of thinking and Tacroy's could illustrate this nicely. — Hendy, Mar 05 '12 at 23:17
@Hendy That's why I favorited this question on my work computer :) — Tacroy, Mar 06 '12 at 02:36
And how are they making the jump from using contraception to having sex with someone who is married to someone else? Using contraception simply means you don't want a baby--and some people don't want a baby even with their spouse. Most people at times don't want a baby even with their spouse. — Loren Pechtel, Oct 14 '14 at 03:49
May i suggest that the reasoning is that contraception is an outside symptom of the changing morality towards sex outside marriage (before marriage! and it facilitates such change because it takes away the obvious consequences) and that this lowers the barrier for infidelity? Especially the first quote seems to point in that direction. — kutschkem, Oct 15 '14 at 11:27
@kutschkem Sure, though that's the point of the question. The armchair reasoning makes sense at first glance and is the argument put forward... but is it *true*? Reminds me of [this question](http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/7341/do-excreted-oral-contraceptive-compounds-in-drinking-water-contribute-to-male-in). First we need to establish that the proposed outcome is actually true (divorce rates/infidelity on the rise). — Hendy, Oct 20 '14 at 20:22
One contributing factor might be that if you're burdened down with a baby you might not be able to afford leaving a bad relationship. It's like the difference between the number of *reported* crimes going up and the number of *actual* crimes going up -- one does not necessarily mean the other. — Shadur, Oct 06 '19 at 15:04
If contraception makes people think that infidelity is okay why would that cause the divorce rate to rise as they would be doing something they consider okay? — Joe W, Oct 07 '19 at 00:37
@JoeW The question is about the measurable effects on the divorce rate due to contraception, not the psychology behind it. I'm not sure if anyone is saying that contraception makes people think that infidelity is okay, just perhaps that risk is lower so they are more likely to try. I suspect that infidelity is highly correlated to divorce. — Hendy, Oct 07 '19 at 16:26
but if the claim is that the use of contraception causes people to feel that sleeping with others outside of marriage isn't bad it can also be claimed that people are not getting divorced because of that unless the claim is that it is okay for themselves to sleep with others outside of marriage but not their partners. — Joe W, Oct 07 '19 at 17:29
@JoeW in this particular question, I would stick to the claim as written: "contraception has increased rate of infidelity and/or divorce." If you would like to start another question about whether or not contraception causes others to feel that sleeping with others isn't bad, go for it. I can see how you interpret that from the first quote, but I think the more intuitive effect might be "contraception leads people to think they won't get caught being unfaithful, and thus they do it more." — Hendy, Oct 10 '19 at 00:13
From the claim as written "that makes a lot of women and a lot of men think that there is no problem with having sex with someone who is married to someone else". To me the fact that they included the statement that it makes people think it is okay to sleep around it should also recognize the fact the fact that the change in belief will also make it less likely to divorce because of the act — Joe W, Oct 10 '19 at 01:10
Again, I can see why you suspect this via the first quote, it's just not what's being asked in my question and should be treated as a separate claim. And again, something like "lack of police officers lead a lot of people to think it's okay to speed" could be interpreted as 1) I no longer believe speeding is immoral and/or 2) I give myself permission to speed because I won't be penalized. Verbatim, I hear you, I just think 1) it's off topic and 2) it could have a non-verbatim interpretation. — Hendy, Oct 10 '19 at 18:23

Tacroy · Answer 1 · 2012-03-06T02:53:17.810

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The premise of this question is incorrect; there has been no increase in divorce rates in recent years, and in fact they have been decreasing since 1996. (raw data here if you want to look through it - but it's really raw, pdf table ew).

Edit: oh right and infidelity has been basically flat. (that article is trying to say it's gone down, but honestly their numbers look like noise)

However, the other half of this question is sort of correct - there has been an increase in the usage of contraceptives over the last decade, as can be seen in this document from the CDC (pdf page 26, internal numbering page 18).

So no, I doubt there's been any actual study done on whether or not divorce rates correlate positively with contraceptive use - the numbers just aren't there to even begin doing that. If anything, you would be looking for a study on whether or not contraceptive rates correlate negatively with divorce rates.

edited Mar 06 '12 at 02:53

answered Mar 06 '12 at 02:35

Tacroy

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Perhaps the original claim is misunderstood: perhaps the claim isn't that contraceptives in society increase society's divorce rate, but that contraceptives in your (individual, personal) life increase your likelihood of divorce. If that's the claim, the answer shouldn't be based on historical data but on current data. See "Proof of this can be seen in the extremely low divorce rates among couples who do not use contraception" in the OP. – ChrisW Mar 06 '12 at 04:04
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@ChrisW I'm not sure I understand. Are you claiming that it is possible for contraceptives to have one effect on the probability of getting divorced at an individual scale, but the opposite effect on the divorce rate at a societal scale? I must admit I'm at a loss as to how that would work given the data. And the quote from the OP sounds a lot like [storks delivering babies](http://www.uni-marburg.de/fb21/motologie/mitarbeiter_seiten/ls/storks.pdf); there is a common confounding factor in that couples who never use contraceptives are also likely to be highly religious, and have many children. – Tacroy Mar 06 '12 at 06:34
I don't believe the question specified 'in recent years', certainly not since 1996. There hasn't been a rise in contraceptive use since 1996, and the big rise in contraceptive use - in the sixties and seventies - coincided with a big increase in divorce. That's the claim - that one caused the other. This answer doesn't address it, so -1. – DJClayworth Mar 06 '12 at 11:16
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@Tacroy - You presume they have a negative effect because you see negative historical correlation (which may not be a valid assumption). What may be happening is a) divorce rate not increasing, for reasons unrelated to contraception b) present-day incidence of divorce remains higher among contraceptive users, for reasons which are related to the personal choices those users make. – ChrisW Mar 06 '12 at 14:01
@DJClayworth The question _itself_ didn't specify a time period. It said that **"artificial contraception has directly contributed to increases in divorce and infidelity among married couples."** Only one of the OP's quotes mentions the '60s and 70's, and the basis of the question is a homily that was presented at a modern Catholic mass. Presumably the moral was meant to apply to people in the modern era, not people in the '60s and 70's. – Tacroy Mar 06 '12 at 14:43
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@ChrisW The data does not rule out your interpretation; however, it does greatly constrain the effect of contraception on divorce, since 99% of all women use some form of it yet divorce rates have still fallen a little bit. If there is an effect there, it must be very very small to have been swamped out by whatever third factor is causing a slight decline in divorce. There's a point at which effects just aren't significant enough to worry about. – Tacroy Mar 06 '12 at 14:49
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If there has been little shift in contraception use in the last ten years, then even if there a strong correlation it would be overridden by another factor. – DJClayworth Mar 06 '12 at 15:46
@DJClayworth That's true, but again - the fact that divorce rates have been dropping while contraceptive use is nondecreasing indicates that **even if** contraception has an effect on the probability of getting divorced, it's small enough to be overridden by some other, more important signal. If you've found studies that compensate for that, you should really post an answer. – Tacroy Mar 06 '12 at 17:41
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I'm afraid that statement is simply wrong. If contraception rate remains constant, then any change in divorce rate **tells us nothing** about the effect of contraception on divorce. It might be extremely strong or zero. – DJClayworth Mar 07 '12 at 08:24
@DJClayworth But the first part of your syllogism is incorrect; the total rate of contraceptive use has gone up from 98.2 (stderr 0.2) in 1995 and 2002 to 99.1 (stderr 0.2) in 2006-2008, which indicates a real increase. Furthermore, there has been a shift in the prevalence of contraceptive modalities; for instance, condom usage went up from 82.0% to 93.0% in the same time period, while things like the sponge and diaphragms declined. – Tacroy Mar 07 '12 at 16:01
I don't want to argue about this in comments. Make a chat room if you want me to explain more. – DJClayworth Mar 08 '12 at 08:01
Despite the original question, considering your answer I do wonder whether actual *divorce* should really be taken into account. Is the real question about the duration of long-term relationships, or is it about divorce? – cwallenpoole Sep 30 '14 at 19:53

Jonathon · Answer 2 · 2019-10-06T14:06:31.690

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As others have pointed out, there are problems with the original questions, but that does not invalidate the original idea.

A primary usage of contraceptives is to prevent children, and we know they are rather effective at this.

And apparently "The divorce rate among couples with children is 40 percent lower than couples without children" [1]. I have been unable to find any data on how that changes with more vs less children, but the number of children in the parents families also have a large effect on their future divorce risk [2].

So, as contraceptives are used and are so effective at preventing children, there is some data that would at least indirectly link contraceptive use and divorce.

Unfortunately, I can not find any data on if their is perhaps more infidelity in marriages that eventually end up divorcing, but it would not be an unreasonable hypothesis to suggest that something that weakens marriage would also increase infidelity.

Update: More data on the Bangladesh case study has become available (3). Since 2012 they have seen a 34% increase in the divorce rate. And while I cannot find any original data on this, the articles heavily imply that is unusual. So the divorce rate increased after the contraceptive use.

Children birthed (TFR) are strongly inversely correlated to Contraceptive use (CPR):

edited Oct 06 '19 at 14:06

answered Nov 03 '15 at 21:04

Jonathon

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Your first citation doesn't include the quote you list. Did you perhaps paste the wrong link? – ChrisInEdmonton Nov 03 '15 at 21:22
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Just because contraceptives are used to prevent children does not mean that couples that use contraceptives do not have children. – called2voyage Nov 03 '15 at 21:28
@ChrisInEdmonton Sorry, has the linked reversed, it is fixed now. – Jonathon Nov 03 '15 at 21:34
@called2voyage No, but it does mean that couples who do not use contraceptives will have more children than couples who do use them. There really is no such thing as a childless marriage for a couple who do not use contraceptives (at least statistically speaking). – Jonathon Nov 03 '15 at 21:38
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@JonathonWisnoski That is a claim I would like to see proof for. There are lots of things that can cause childlessness aside from contraceptives. – called2voyage Nov 03 '15 at 21:42
@called2voyage OK. – Jonathon Nov 03 '15 at 22:40
@JonathonWisnoski Fair enough, that is a very strong correlation. – called2voyage Nov 03 '15 at 22:44
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A problem with this logic too is that it points to contraception as the cause of the higher divorce rates for those without children, when it may very well be that the type of people who do not want children are more likely to get divorced period, whether or not they ever actually use contraception and / or have children or not. – Andrew Whatever Nov 04 '15 at 19:31
This is confusing correlation with causation. The opposite conclusion is also possible with the same data: That couples who use contraceptives to be childfree remain married for longer but couples trying for a child who remain childless quickly divorce to try their luck with a different partner. – Oddthinking Oct 04 '19 at 06:42
@Oddthinking Yes, absolutely, it is pretty much impossible to prove causation without specifically designed trials. I do not understand how it could imply what you are stating, but it could clearly imply that divorce increases contraceptive use. Unfortunately, while their are many articles online about Bangladesh's recent skyrocketing divorce rate, I cannot find the original data, nor anything about what it was doing prior to this, but it does state that it started in 2012 and has increased 34%, and they imply this is unusual. So we can assume it was rather static beforehand. – Jonathon Oct 05 '19 at 11:55
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@Jonathon: Your answer says "it would seem that [contraceptives] do increase divorce rates, indirectly" but your comment says that is "pretty much impossible to prove". Please edit your answer to limit it to statements you can support. – Oddthinking Oct 05 '19 at 13:30

Does contraception cause infidelity and/or divorce?

2 Answers2