Prairie Public Broadcasting

Surviving the split ALBANY, NY (WAMC) - We've all heard the stereotypical divorce story - two spouses split, the mom takes full custody of the kids, and the dad gets behind on child support payments. This story describes fewer and fewer divorces, as joint custody becomes more common and enforcement of child support grows more sophisticated. But internationally, some parents are skipping out on their families by crossing the border into another country - and into another legal system where child support payments are easier to avoid.

Margot Bean is the U.S. Federal Commissioner for the Office of Child Support Enforcement. That means she helps draft and put in place legislation to ensure divorced couples share the load in supporting their children. Last fall, Bean took steps toward an international treaty at The Hague. If ratified, the convention would put universal laws in place that would make it harder for spouses to skip the country and duck child support payments. I sat down with Bean to talk about child support in the U.S. and the new international agreement - which, in The Hague's terminology, is called a convention.

Legal issues aside, marital strife is often enormously taxing emotionally. The wrangling that comes along with divorce feels extremely personal and unique. In her studies on families, Susan Walzer has found that outside societal pressures are stressing marital relationships...and that adding children into a family equation can make the situation worse in many cases. Walzer told me it often comes down to old gender roles re-emerging - and causing confusion in marriages.

When Gabriel Cohen's wife left him the summer of 2005, he plunged deep into anger and depression. Searching for a way out, Cohen found Buddhism - and in the past three years, he's found it gave him the kind of comfort and guidance he needed to deal with the end of his marriage. Cohen has chronicled his path to Buddhism in a book called Storms Can't Hurt the Sky. He shared some of his insights with me the other day.

Cohen didn't have kids when he got divorced. But many couples worry most about collatoral damage to their children if they split up. Jeremiah Kaczynski's parents have been divorced for 11 years, and that has been an ongoing struggle for him. So as a producer for Youth Radio Vermont, Kaczynski decided to ask other kids what they thought about divorce. Here's what he found. © Copyright 2012, WAMC