One of the most important subjects for contemporary sociologists is how does divorce affects today families. Because divorce has become so common, it is vital for scholars – and through them society as a whole – to understand the consequences of divorce on a family – on the adults as well as the children, on this directly affected generation as well as the next. There is, of course, no single answer to these questions for there is no single way in which divorce affects American families in the 21st century simply because the differences among contemporary American families is so great – and this does not even begin to address the fundamental differences among all of the individuals in each of those families.