Decline of the Family Decline of marriage

1
Decline of the Family? Decline of marriage?

• Evidence for
• Higher divorce rates
• Lower marriage rates
• More single-family parents
• But .

2
Reasons for? (according to William J. Goode)

• Urban living
• Geographic mobility
• Heterogeneity loosening of bonds
• Individualism (a real change here, from
  Middletown studies, but effect is not completely
  clear)
• Children are an economic liability
• Romantic love is overburdened
• Changing roles of women (into workforce)
• Sexual permissiveness
• Experimentation

3
Primary vs secondary group relationships

• Small (numbers)
• Long term
• Intense
• Spontaneous
• Informal
• Frequent interaction
• Stable membership
• Internal solidarity (we)
• Intrinsically meaningful and fulfilling

4
What is the evidence on the marriage/family?

• Divorce and less marriagechanges in rates of
  marriage, cohabitation, divorce, and
  single-parent households
• Happiness within marriagestays high (some drop)
• Parent and childrencloser, more time spent
  together
• Changes in sexuality (not what you might
  thinkchanges for single people, not married
  people )

5
Happiness among married people

•  
• The SAS
  System 0950 Friday, April 24, 2009 14
•  
• The FREQ
  Procedure
•  
• How happy are you
  in your marriage?
•  
• 
  Cumulative Cumulative
• marriage Frequency
  Percent Frequency Percent
• 1 very happy 861
  61.06 861 61.06
• 2 pretty happy 512
  36.31 1373 97.38
• 3 not so happy 37
  2.62 1410 100.00
•  

6
Relationship between sex and marital happiness

•  
• The SAS
  System 0950 Friday, April 24, 2009 20
•  
• The FREQ
  Procedure
•  
• Table of
  marriage by havesex
•  
• marriage(How happy are you in your
  marriage?)
• havesex(How often do you
  engage in intercourse?)
• Col Pct 0 not at1 1-2 ti2 monthl3
  2-3x 4 weekly5 2-3x a6 3x tim Total
• all mes y
  month week es a week
• 
  
• 1 very happy 53.26 53.85 58.54
  56.31 67.94 72.50 69.57
• 
  
• 2 pretty happy 45.65 40.66 37.80
  42.23 28.23 27.08 26.09
• 
  
• 3 not so happy 1.09 5.49 3.66
  1.46 3.83 0.42 4.35
• 
  

7
Relationship between marriage and frequency of sex

• How often do you engage
  in intercourse?
• 
  Col Pct Not Married Total
• married
  
• 
  
• 0 not at all 39.13
  8.86
• 
  
• 1 1-2 times 8.89
  8.67
• 
  
• 2 monthly 7.87
  15.62
• 
  
• 3 2-3x month 12.00
  19.71
• 
  
• 4 weekly 10.44
  19.90
• 
  
• 5 2-3x a wee 14.81
  22.86
• 
  
• 6 3x times w 6.86
  4.38
• 
  
• Total 1283
  1050 2333