Evaluating explanations for increased divorce rates

• Whilst it is clear that legislative changes have impacted the rate of divorce, it is less clear whether they have impacted the rate of marital breakdown
• Statistics on separation are much less readily available than those on divorce
• There are no records at all of empty shell marriages where people continue to live together for the sake of children, propriety or the difficulty and expense of divorce who might, after 1969, have got divorced
• It is also difficult to determine the true impact of the other suggested explanations