Effects on Children

• Divorce can be a strain on children and teens.Jupiterimages/BananaStock/Getty Images
  
  Not all children of divorce have absentee fathers, but it does sometimes result from divorce. And because of the financial strains, emotional distress and lack of parental support that can result when a father leaves the home, fatherless children often face challenges tougher than those confronted by peers with married parents. According to 2008 statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau, fatherless girls are 6.6 times more likely than their peers to become teenage mothers. Children without fathers in the home are also more than 15 times more likely than their peers to develop behavioral problems and more than six times more likely to drop out of school.
  
  

Money isn't Everything

• It's long been touted that financial problems are the most frequent cause of divorce. But according to a study by California State-Sacramento associate professor Jan Andersen, money is actually only the root of five percent of divorces. Other potential causes: general incompatibility, sexual incompatibility, power struggles and differing views on politics, religion and child-rearing.
  
  

Financial Repercussions

• Divorce is often costly, with each side footing the bill for pricey attorney fees. And it doesn't only affect the finances of the principles; according to a 2008 study by Georgia State University economist Ben Scafidi, divorce and out-of-wedlock childbearing cost American taxpayers $112 billion yearly because single mothers are more likely than others to require financial assistance. Some states, in fact, have launched public programs aimed at strengthening marriages in order to cut down on such costs.
  
  

Age and Divorce

• The younger the couple, the higher the odds they'll eventually get divorced. It's open to interpretation whether this is because younger people are more likely to yearn freedom eventually, or because they simply have more years of marriage ahead of them -- and thus more time to potential decide on divorce -- than older couples. But according to 2003 numbers from the National Center for Health Statistics, 60 percent of marriages of people between 20 and 25 years old end in divorce.