4.2.1

Marriage

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Marriage vs Cohabitation

Recent trends show a decline in marriages and an increase in cohabitation. This is due to changes within the law and social attitudes.

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Changes to family structure

  • Changes in the law, social attitudes and the growth of secularisation (the decline in the importance of religion) have led to an alteration in the structure of the family.
  • Cohabitation, raising children outside marriage, divorce and re-marriage are now more common than they were only a few decades ago.
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Decline in marriage

  • In the past 50 years there has been around a two-thirds decline in marriage rates as people are choosing to marry later in life or to cohabit (live together).
  • Cohabitation is becoming the norm with people choosing to cohabit as an alternative to marriage, as an informal arrangement with a temporary or casual relationship or as a trial or precursor to marriage.
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Explaining the rise in cohabitation

  • More economic independence that gives women more freedom to choose their relationship.
  • Higher expectations of relationships and the rejection of patriarchy (feminism).
  • People might cohabit in order to avoid risks associated with a formal marriage agreement and the potential for divorce.
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Reasons cont.

  • The reduction in the function of the family means that marriage is now less of a practical necessity.
  • There is now less stigma attached to cohabitation and rearing children outside marriage.
  • The declining influence of religion (secularisation) has reduced the moral stigma of what was once described as ‘living in sin’.

Remarriage and Blended Families

Remarriage and the growth of reconstituted, step- or blended families is increasingly common in today's society.

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Increase in divorce

  • About one-third of marriages now involve a remarriage for one or both partners.
  • This is mainly due to the increase in divorce.
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Types of families

  • When those remarrying (or cohabiting) have children from a previous relationship, this results in a reconstituted family (also know as step-families or blended families.)
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Reconstituted families

  • Reconstituted families account for about 11 percent of all couple families with dependent children.
  • Stepfathers are more common than stepmothers because most children remain with the mother after a break-up.

Jump to other topics

1Theory & Methods

2Education with Methods in Context

3Option 1: Culture & Identity

4Option 1: Families & Households

5Option 1: Health

6Option 1: Work, Poverty & Welfare

7Option 2: Beliefs in Society

8Option 2: Global Development

9Option 2: The Media

10Crime & Deviance

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