House Bill 9385
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Florida House of Representatives - 1998 HR 9385
By Representatives Wise and Bloom
1 House Resolution
2 A resolution designating March 30 through April
3 5, 1998, as Divorce Awareness Week.
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5 WHEREAS, nearly half of all marriages in the United
6 States now end in divorce, thus breaking the bonds between
7 husbands and wives, their families, and their children, and
8 disrupting the emotional, physical, and economic well-being of
9 far too many citizens, and
10 WHEREAS, with 1.2 million divorces across the nation
11 each year, the United States possesses the highest divorce
12 rate in the industrialized world, and
13 WHEREAS, social research has indicated a strong link
14 between divorce and a variety of serious social ills, and
15 WHEREAS, studies show that women facing divorce are
16 most anxious about economic security and men facing divorce
17 are most anxious about emotional security, and that such
18 anxiety can be detrimental to the adults and to the children
19 of divorcing parents, and
20 WHEREAS, research has also indicated that only
21 one-tenth of divorces improve the quality of life of both
22 parties involved, and
23 WHEREAS, approximately 1 million children each year are
24 affected by divorce, with the result that fewer than 60
25 percent of all children today live with their biological
26 parents, and
27 WHEREAS, roughly half of today's children will endure
28 the dissolution of their parents' marriage, and most of those
29 children will live in a single-parent home for at least five
30 years, and
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Florida House of Representatives - 1998 HR 9385
144-208A-98
1 WHEREAS, the father-child relationship is especially at
2 risk because of divorce, with limited custody arrangements
3 frequently resulting in a destruction of the father-child
4 relationship, further placing children at risk, and
5 WHEREAS, it is estimated that, at any given time,
6 one-fourth of all noncustodial fathers will have failed to
7 contact their children even once during the previous five
8 years, and
9 WHEREAS, studies demonstrate that the lack of strong
10 two-parent families contributes to problems among teenagers
11 and that divorce is strongly linked to negative effects on
12 young people in the areas of school performance, juvenile
13 crime, physical and mental health, poverty, promiscuity and
14 illegitimacy, emotional and behavioral problems, and the
15 propensity for unstable adult relationships, and
16 WHEREAS, when compared to children of families that
17 have remained intact, children of divorced parents are much
18 more likely to drop out of school, to engage in premarital
19 sex, and to become pregnant outside of marriage, and
20 WHEREAS, increasingly, individuals, health care
21 professionals, and elected officials are recognizing the costs
22 to society of divorce and are examining ways to develop
23 workable solutions to marital problems, and
24 WHEREAS, it is the responsibility of all sectors of
25 society to promote the benefits of traditional families as a
26 means of enriching the lives of adults and providing the
27 conditions necessary to rear healthy children, and
28 WHEREAS, through public education's treatment of
29 marriage as the backbone of a stable and virtuous society,
30 through the development of marriage-friendly economic and
31 social policies, and through the work of religious
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Florida House of Representatives - 1998 HR 9385
144-208A-98
1 institutions in preparing young people for marriage and
2 counseling married couples, the stability of the traditional
3 family can be restored, and
4 WHEREAS, by demanding rigorous standards of preparation
5 for couples planning to marry, and by counseling and pairing
6 with mentoring couples, those contemplating marriage will be
7 equipped to understand more fully the practical requirements
8 for building a stable home and their obligations to children,
9 and
10 WHEREAS, it is appropriate that Floridians give their
11 continued support and recognition to the economic,
12 intellectual, and emotional strength of the two-parent family
13 and continue to foster public awareness of the effects of
14 divorce and the resources available to aid broken families at
15 the state and local levels, NOW, THEREFORE,
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17 Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the State of
18 Florida:
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20 That the House of Representatives of the State of
21 Florida hereby designates the week of March 30, 1998, through
22 April 5, 1998, as Divorce Awareness Week.
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