True. However, the fact that single mothers constitute a disproportionate number of people living at/below the poverty level makes me think that single/divorced women with children suffer financially compared to women without children.

You can’t use that particular analysis to support the position that divorce is the cause of single mother living at/below poverty level. You add in unwed mothers, teen children bearing children and you add in the issue of the welfare state. We were covering the issue of the effect of divorce. Single women bearing children out of wedlock is a completely different subject and has much different causes, underlying issues etc.

Question: would you have preferred that your parents divorce, or have them work on developing a better marriage and staying married?

Simple.. divorced. We wished they had done it sooner. It was driving all the kids insane.

I guess I see more options that just “stay married and miserable” or divorce.

There are more options than stay-married+miserable vs divorce. But there are also situations where stay together and get it to work.. won’t work.. ever!