One trend that I have noticed that since the frum population has B”H grown so much, problems that once involved a few people, now involve so many more, just because the numbers have increased, but not necessarily the percentages. Does anyone actually know if the divorce rate (% of marriages) has actually gone up, or just the number of divorces, proportional to the population? Say the 5% number thrown out here is correct, 5% of the frum population in the US in the 1970s works out to be far fewer people than 5% of the frum population of the 21st century. I think this is one reason that so many issues have become crises- because the number of people being affected is staggering, not necessarily because things have changed.
If my very non-statistically significant experience counts for anything, among the parents of my classmates, friends, extended family members, or my parents’ friends (ie the generation above mine), I can think of 7 who were divorced or involved in blended families (the parents themselves were married, but had been previously divorced) when I was growing up. A few (3-4) more divorced after their kids were grown and married. Among my generation of friends, former classmates, extended family members, I can think of about 11 who are divorced, most right away, a few after several years of marriage and several kids, and a few more recently after long marriages. Of these, 6 I know stemmed from either serious emotional issues or abusive behavior in one spouse. From the next generation, the oldest kids are only starting to get married and B”H I have not heard of any divorces among these. So not a huge difference between the 2 generations. But this is purely anecdotal and represents a very small sample size, and does not cover those married within the last 5-10 years.