Research library

Evidence-based research on separation, divorce, and family law.

Twenty long-form articles grounded in the empirical literature on the emotional, legal, financial, and family dimensions of separation. Plus jurisdiction-specific legal guides across every Canadian province and U.S. state.

Articles are written by the DivorceParty research team and reviewed against the underlying source material. Citations are preserved in every piece.

Cluster 1

Pre-Decision

For the moment before anything is decided. What the research says about ambivalence, recovery, and the cost of staying.

11 min read9 sources

Research

Is My Marriage Unhappy Enough to Leave? What the Research Actually Says

Decades of marriage research can't tell you whether to leave. But it can tell you which kinds of unhappiness tend to recover, and which tend not to.

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10 min read8 sources

Research

The Science of Ambivalence: Why Staying and Leaving Both Feel Right

You are not weak, broken, or indecisive. You are in the cognitive state researchers have spent fifty years describing. Here is what they've learned.

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10 min read8 sources

Research

The Hidden Costs of Staying in an Unhappy Marriage

The costs of divorce are loud. The costs of staying are quieter. Research on marital distress has spent four decades measuring the second.

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12 min read8 sources

Research

7 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Deciding

A research-anchored question framework for the decision no one can make for you. Drawn from Gottman, Hetherington, Rusbult, and Johnson.

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Cluster 2

Emotional & Psychological Impact

Grief, identity, mental health, and the emotional architecture of separation — what is normal, what is not, and what actually helps.

11 min read11 sources

Research

The Grief of Divorce: Why It Rivals Bereavement and How to Move Through It

Divorce grief behaves like bereavement but is rarely treated like it. Here is what dual-process, ambiguous-loss, and disenfranchised-grief research actually says.

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10 min read10 sources

Research

Who Am I Now? Identity Reconstruction After Long-Term Relationships

The 'losing yourself' feeling after a long relationship ends is a measurable psychological phenomenon. Self-concept clarity research explains what is happening and what rebuilds it.

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11 min read10 sources

Research

Anxiety, Depression, and the Separation Process: What the Clinical Data Shows

Most distress during separation is a normal response to an abnormal event. A meaningful minority needs clinical support. Here is how the research distinguishes them.

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13 min read11 sources

Research

Anger and Forgiveness After Divorce — What the Research Says

Chronic post-divorce anger has measurable health costs. What the forgiveness research actually shows — and why forgiveness does not require reconciliation.

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Cluster 3

Practical & Legal Process

Financial disclosure, mediation vs litigation outcomes, property-division rules, and realistic timelines — the procedural architecture of separating.

14 min read7 sources

Research

Financial Disclosure: The Most Important Step You've Never Heard Of

Hiding assets is the single most common way divorces go off the rails. What you have to disclose, how courts enforce it, and what happens when someone lies.

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13 min read7 sources

Research

Mediation vs. Litigation: What the Research Says About Cost, Time, and Outcomes

A 12-year longitudinal study found mediated divorces produced better co-parenting relationships and dramatically lower re-litigation rates. Here is what the evidence actually shows.

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15 min read7 sources

Research

Everything You Think You Know About Property Division Is Probably Wrong

The 50/50 myth is the single most expensive misconception in divorce. What equitable distribution, community property, and Canada's deferred-sharing regime actually do.

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12 min read7 sources

Research

The Actual Timeline of Divorce: What Happens Month by Month

Canada requires one year of separation. US states vary from 0 to 12 months. Here is what a typical divorce timeline actually looks like, stage by stage.

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Cluster 4

Children & Co-Parenting

What the evidence says about child adjustment, custody arrangements, co-parenting after conflict, and the contested science of parental alienation.

14 min read7 sources

Research

What Children Actually Need During Divorce: Evidence Over Instinct

The research is clear on what protects children during divorce — and most of it isn't what parents instinctively worry about. A synthesis of 40 years of child-adjustment studies.

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13 min read7 sources

Research

Co-Parenting After Conflict: What the Research Says Works

Most divorce-era parenting advice assumes cooperative exes. For the significant minority who don't have that, the research points to a different model: parallel parenting.

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15 min read7 sources

Research

Shared Custody, Sole Custody, and Everything In Between: What the Evidence Supports

The custody research is both more settled and more contested than parents expect. A clear-eyed tour of the converging findings and the live debates.

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14 min read7 sources

Research

Parental Alienation: What the Evidence Actually Shows

Resist-refuse dynamics are real. Whether 'parental alienation' as a clinical construct is well-supported is genuinely contested. A careful look at both sides.

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Cluster 5

Post-Divorce & Long-Term Outcomes

The first year, the five-year financial recovery data, dating and remarriage research, and what longitudinal studies show about life a decade later.

12 min read6 sources

Research

The First Year After Divorce: What Actually Happens

Longitudinal data shows most people are meaningfully okay by month 12-18, some are better than before, and a real minority struggle longer. Here's the research and what it means for you.

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13 min read6 sources

Research

Financial Recovery After Divorce: The Five-Year Data

Longitudinal studies track what actually happens to household income, net worth, and retirement savings in the five years after divorce. The numbers are sobering but not uniform.

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12 min read6 sources

Research

Dating and Remarriage After Divorce: What the Research Shows

When to date, what predicts successful second relationships, and why remarriages actually have higher dissolution rates than first marriages — and what you can do about it.

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13 min read6 sources

Research

Thriving After Divorce: The Ten-Year Data

Longitudinal studies tracking people a decade after divorce find a surprising result — roughly 20% emerge better than they were before. Here is what distinguishes them.

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Jurisdiction guides

Legal guides for every Canadian province and U.S. state.

Procedural overviews and topic-level deep dives (property division, spousal support, child custody, child support, divorce process) written to the rules of the local jurisdiction.

Jurisdiction Guides