Regardless of religious beliefs, background, or ethnicity, everyone starts out their marriage full of hopes, dreams, and with the best of intentions. So, how then have we as a country arrived at our currently alarming divorce rate? The causes for divorce are far too many and varied to address in their entirety within this paper. This paper will focus on the contribution of marrying too young to the ever escalating divorce rate.
The divorce rate commonly quoted and accepted by the media of 50% is indeed alarming if not investigated and studied in depth. The perception that couples only stand a 50/50 chance of their marriage succeeding should they decide marry is nothing less than depressing, and understandably casts a long shadow of doubt and worry in the minds of young couples in love as they contemplate their futures. However, when considering the divorce rate, it is important to differentiate divorce rates between various age groups in order to get a clear understanding of the overall statistic.
While divorces are far too common, in all actuality, the divorce rate has dropped to its lowest rate since 1970 as people are waiting longer to get married, live together without marrying, or enter into prenuptial agreements. Divorce rates peaked at 5.3 per 1,000 within the population in 1981 (LOPATTO). However, further investigation shows that 40% of all divorces occurred among couples under 30 years of age. That is a staggering 38% increase since 1970 (YARROW). The issue lies not with the institution of marriage, but with the age and maturity level of those entering into it.
Statistics clearly demonstrate that marriages entered into between teens and couples in their early twenties have a much higher likelihood of endin...
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According to Wikipedia – the free encyclopedia[4], “From 2002 to the latest survey data as of 2012,[2] 29% of first marriages among women aged 15–44 were disrupted (ended in separation, divorce or annulment) within 10 years. [3]” This is alarmingly a high rate of marriage failure. After reading the novel by Jordan Sonnenblick, “Notes From the Midnight Driver” [1], I am submitting a research paper on the topic, “Family Divorce” using the situation of the novel as an example.
Marriage is a commitment that seems to be getting harder to keep. The social standards placed on an individual by society and influenced by the media inevitably lead some to consider divorce as a “quick-fix” option. “Have it your way” has become a motto in the United States. It has become a country without any consideration of the psychological effects of marriage and divorce. The overwhelmingly high divorce rate is caused by a lack of moral beliefs and marital expectations.
First of all, America has the highest divorce rate among western nations. Divorce rate increased after every major war, and decreased during the Post-World War II economic boom. The divorce rate has more than doubled since 1940, when there were two divorces for every 1,000 persons. Now for the same number of people, there are over five divorces. Studies indicate that there is more divorce among persons with low incomes and limited education and those who marry at a very young age. Teenage marriages are much more likely to end in divorce than are all other marriages. And women who marry when they are over age 30 are the least likely to become divorced. There has been a decline in divorce in the number of couples who have children under 18. Almost 45 p...
More Americans are getting divorced at an astonishing rate, according to the McKinley Irvin Family Law, there are about 16,800 divorces per week. This phenomenon has triggered a general panic among young adults. Therefore, animated by their fear of getting divorced, young adults have elaborated a new solution to avoid divorce which is cohabitation. They see cohabitation as a test to avoid divorce. However, does cohabitation really work? Meg Jay in her text entitled “The Downside of Living Together” defends the idea that seeing cohabitation as a preventive way to avoid divorce leads to increase the chance of divorce. I believe that cohabitation
It is not a new thought that today’s young Americans are facing issues, problems and difficult decisions that past generations never had to question. In a world of technology, media, and a rough economy, many young adults in America are influenced by a tidal wave of opinions and life choices without much relevant advice from older generations. The Generation Y, or Millennial, group are coming of age in a confusing and mixed-message society. One of these messages that bombard young Americans is the choice of premarital cohabitation. Premarital cohabitation, or living together without being married (Jose, O’Leary & Moyer, 2010), has increased significantly in the past couple of decades and is now a “natural” life choice before taking the plunge into marriage. Kennedy and Bumpass (2008) state that, “The increase in cohabitation is well documented,such that nearly two thirds of newlyweds have cohabited prior to their first marriage”(as cited in Harvey, 2011, p. 10), this is a striking contrast compared with statistics of our grandparents, or even parents, generations. It is such an increasing social behavior that people in society consider cohabitation “necessary” before entering into marriage. Even more, young Americans who choose not to cohabitate, for many different reasons, are looked upon as being “old-fashioned”, “naive”, or “unintelligent”. This pressure for young people to cohabitate before marriage is a serious “modern-day” challenge; especially when given research that states, “... most empirical studies find that couples who cohabited prior to marriage experience significantly higher odds of marital dissolution than their counterparts who did not cohabit before marriage”, stated by Jose (2010) and colleagues (as c...
... Union Stability: Preliminary Findings from NSFH2. NSFH Working Paper No. 65. University of Wisconsin-Madison: Center for Demography and Ecology. Clarkberg, M., Stolzenberg, R. & Waite, L. (1995). Attitudes, values and entrance in to cohabitation versus marital unions. Social Forces, 74, 609-632. Horwitz, A. & White, H. (1998). The relationship of cohabitation and mental health: a study of a young adult cohort. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 60, 505-14 Kiernan, K. & Estaugh, V. (1993). Cohabitation: extra marital childbearing and social policy. Occasional paper 17, London: Family Policy Studies Centre. Teachman, J. & Polonko, K. (1990). Cohabitation and marital stability in the US. Social Forces, 69, 207-20. Tucker, J. et al., (2003). Parental divorce: effects on individual behavior and longevity. Journal of personality and social psychology, 73, 385-386.
According to the Council on Families In America, “for the average American, the probability that a marriage taking place today will end in divorce or permanent separation is calculated to be a staggering 60% and more than half of divorcing couples have children under the age of 18. The odds that a child today will witness the divorce of their parents, is twice as great as a generation ago, with as many as half of all children likely to experience a parental divorce before they leave home.”
Every year approximately 2.4 million marriages occur.Out of those,2.1 millionwill file for divorce in the United States. These marriage and divorce rates have significantly increased since the years past(Coltrane and Adams, 364).According to Schoen, in the 1950’s, 15 out of 1,000 marriages ended in divorce.In the 1970’s, the rates of divorcedoubled,increasing to 40 per 1,000 marriages. Currently, the rate of marriages resulting in divorce remains the same. Most marriages are ending within seven years ofthemarriage for multiple different reasons. Sociologists haveestablisheddivorce as a social problem from the rise in divorcerates due to the early year of marriages (2006).
According to recent statistics, there are more divorces now than ever before. At the rate things are going, the divorce rate may soon surpass the marriage rate. There are many reasons for such a high divorce rate, but one of the main ones is that people do not realize what they are getting themselves into when they marry. Couples do not realize that marriage is a job that must be worked at continuously in order for it to go well. Because many couples marry for the wrong reasons, a breakdown in communication results, which leads to a couple's growing apart. This process, all too often, ends in divorce.
No one expects to divorce when they get married but nearly half of all marriages will end in divorce or separation. Divorce can be costly, with court fees and attorneys. Dr. Doherty, noted marriage scholar and therapist has determined a list of risk factors that are attributed to marital problems and divorce. The first three: Young age, less education and less income are coincidently other topics brushed upon in this paper. Impulsive decisions made by younger people to marry leads to children which leads to financial instability. Once a couple has children, they are unlikely to further their education because of lack of time. Divorce also has a negative effect on
One tough thing about today's American family is divorce. In 1816, one marriage out of one hundred ended in divorce. Then between the years 1869-1888, divorce increased up to one hundred and fifty percent. And the worse, between the years 1960-1980, the divorce rate increased up to two hundred and fifty percent. Divorce rates peaked in 1981 and then started to decline a little during the mid 1980's. However, divorce rates now are as high as they have ever been. Now fifty percent of all marriages end in divorce. There are five reasons for the increase in divorce. The first reason is in modern societies; individual happiness is regarded to be important so when people are unhappy with their marriage, they break-up and split. The second reason is it is easier to get divorced financially. The third reason is that women's economic independence has contributed. The fourth reason is the stigma of divorce has lessened so people are not
Throughout the last half of the century, our society has watched the divorce rate of married couples skyrocket to numbers previously not seen. Although their has been a slight decline in divorce rates, “half of first marriages still were expected to dissolve before death.” (Stacy, 15, 1991) Whatever happened to that meaningful exchange of words, “until death do us part,” uttered by the bride and groom to each other on their wedding day? What could have been the cause of such inflated divorce rates? Perhaps young married couples are not mature enough to be engaged in such a trremendous responsibility, or, maybe, the couples really do not know each other as well as they thought. Possibly, they have been blinded by infatuation rather than by true love, or, quite simply, the couples mistakenly have different relational expectations.
Divorce has become a phenomenon of the modern world and is grabbing attention of numerous nations as well as the media. Divorce rates are escalating in a global perspective however the increase is not as rapid as it used to be a few decades ago. Developed countries, such as the US, England and Wales are experiencing a gradual decrease in divorce rates and marriage rates since 1980 and is showing no sign of increasing. Divorce affects a wide population especially because of the development of
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. “Pathways to Adulthood and Marriage: Teenagers’ Attitudes, Expectations, and Relationship Patterns” Aspe.hhs.gov Web. 17 Nov. 2010.
Statistics show that in 1998, 2,256,000 couples became married, and 1,135,000 couples became divorced (Fast 1,2). For every two couples getting married, there is one that is getting divorced. In fact, half of ALL marriages end in divorce (Ayer 41). That is a sad reality to face. Those percentage rates increase as the age of the participant’s decrease. It seems these days, fewer and fewer teens between the ages of 14 and 18 are getting married. This is a change for the better. Teens are usually not prepared for marriage. Marriage comes with many responsibilities; most of which teens are not prepared to handle. “Early marriage, though possessing certain inherent dangers, is widely practiced in contemporary America” (Teenage 1). Even if teens feel they have the potential for a lasting marriage, they should still wait to become married.