I often hear stories like that from students in my undergraduate course on divorce and remarriage. These students clearly want to learn from their experiences and do better in their own marriages. But their aspirations face unfavorable odds: Growing up in a divorced family greatly increases the chances of ending one's own marriage – a phenomenon called the divorce cycle, or the intergenerational transmission of divorce.

This book examines how the divorce cycle has transformed family life in contemporary America. Although researchers established years ago that divorce runs in families, many of the details remain unknown. Far too often, divorce transmission is just part of the long and ever-growing list of maladies associated with parental divorce. Not enough is known about the circumstances surrounding divorce transmission, the conditions under which it flourishes, and what decreases the chances that children will repeat the marital experiences of their parents.