Over the last forty years the leading marriage indicators - empirical descriptions of marriage health and satisfaction in the United States - have been in steady decline. 2
Bradford Wilcox, ed. The State of Our Unions: Marriage in America, 200 (National Marriage Project, University of Virginia). and the Marriage Index: A proposal to Establish leading marriage indicators (Institute for American Values and the National Center on African American Marriages and Parenting, 2009).
www.stateoftheunions.org
www.americanvalues.org
www.haptonu.edu/ncaamp
The divorce rate is nearly twice the rate it was in 1960.3
Marriage Index, 5. State of our Union, 78.
In the 1970, 89 percent of all births were to married parents, but today only 60 percent are.4
The Marriage Index, 5.
More tellingly, over 72 percent of American adults were married in 1960, but only 50 percent were in 2008.5
pewsocialtrends.org. "Decline of Marriage and the Rise of New Families."
Today, more than half of all people live together before getting married. In 1960, virtually no one did.6
State of our Union, 84.
One quarter of all unmarried women between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-nine are currently living with a partner, and by their late thirties over 60 percent will have done so.7
Mindy E. Scott. "Young Adults Attitudes about Relationships and Marriage: Times May Have Changed, but Expectations Remain High," in Child Trends: Research Brief.
While it is true that some 45 percent of marriages end in divorce, by far the greatest percentage of divorces happen to those who marry before the age of eighteen, who have dropped out of high school, and who have had a baby together before marrying. "So if you are reasonably well-educated person with a decent income, come from an intact family and are religious, and marry after twenty-five without having a baby firs,t your chances of divorce are low indeed."11
"The Chances of Divorce May Be Much Lower than You Think" The State of Our Union, 80
Many young adults argue for cohabitation because they feel they should own a home and be financially secure before they marry. 12
State of our Union 7
The assumption is that marriage is a financial drain. But studies point to what have been called "The Surprising Economic Benefits of Marriage."13
State of our Union 80
A 1992 study of retirement data shows that individuals who were continuously married had 75 percent more wealth at retirement than those who never married or who divorced and did not remarry. Even more remarkably, married men have been shown to earn 10-40 percent more than do single men with similar education and job histories.
All surveys tell us that the number of married people who say they are "very happy" in their marriages is high- about 61-62 percent - and there has been little decrease in this figure during the last decade. Most striking of all, longitudinal studies demonstrate that two-thirds of those unhappy marriages out there will become happy within five years if people stay married and do not get divorced.18
Linda Waite, et al. Does Diveorce Make People Happy? Findings from a Study of Unhappy Marriages (American Values Institute, 2002)
This led University of Chicago sociologist Linda J. Waite to say, "the benefits of divorce have been oversold."19
Linda Waite, et al. Does Diveorce Make People Happy? Findings from a Study of Unhappy Marriages (American Values Institute, 2002)
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