The State of our Unions in 2007

What is the state of marriage today? The researchers over at The National Marriage Project (based at Rutgers) have just released the latest. For the past nine years, they have produced an annual report called "The State of our Unions" providing a current snapshot of trends in marriage, cohabitation, childbirth, divorce and more. Their report also includes a feature essay each year on an emerging trend. This year's essay looks at marriage in America compared to other Western nations. Here's an excerpt:

The recent family trends in the Western nations have been largely generated by a distinctive set of cultural values that scholars have come to label "secular individualism." It features the gradual abandonment of religious attendance and beliefs, a strong leaning toward "expressive" values that are preoccupied with personal autonomy and self-fulfillment, and a political emphasis on egalitarianism and the tolerance of diverse lifestyles. An established empirical generalization is that the greater the dominance of secular individualism in a culture, the more fragmented the families. The fundamental reason is that the traditional nuclear family is a somewhat inegalitarian group (not only between husbands and wives but also parents and children) that requires the suppression of some individuality and also has been strongly supported by, and governed by the rules of, orthodox religions. As a seeming impediment to personal autonomy and social equality, therefore, the traditional family is an especially attractive unit for attacks from a secular individualistic perspective.

The essay goes on to examine a divide in marital trends within America:

The Red State/Blue State divide has become a familiar theme in national politics. In a series of recent presidential elections, the so-called Red states have tended to vote Republican and the Blue states have voted Democratic. The Red states consist of the South (e.g. Alabama), the lower Midwest (e.g. Oklahoma), and the Mountain Region of the West (e.g. Montana). The Blue states are those of the Northeast (e.g. Massachusetts), the upper Midwest (e.g. Minnesota), and the West Coast (e.g. California). Less well known is the fact that the Red and Blue states also differ significantly in family terms, and this may help to explain their politics.

David Popenoe and Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, the researchers behind this report, are well-respected for their insights on marriage trends. Anyone looking for an objective analysis of the issues we often banter about here on BoundlessLine can find it by reading the full report.

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The recent family trends in the Western nations have been largely generated by a distinctive set of cultural values that scholars have come to label "secular individualism." It features the gradual abandonment of religious attendance and beliefs, a strong leaning toward "expressive" values that are preoccupied with personal autonomy and self-fulfillment, and a political emphasis on egalitarianism and the tolerance of diverse lifestyles. An established empirical generalization is that the greater the dominance of secular individualism in a culture, the more fragmented the families. The fundamental reason is that the traditional nuclear family is a somewhat inegalitarian group (not only between husbands and wives but also parents and children) that requires the suppression of some individuality and also has been strongly supported by, and governed by the rules of, orthodox religions. As a seeming impediment to personal autonomy and social equality, therefore, the traditional family is an especially attractive unit for attacks from a secular individualistic perspective.

The essay goes on to examine a divide in marital trends within America:

The Red State/Blue State divide has become a familiar theme in national politics. In a series of recent presidential elections, the so-called Red states have tended to vote Republican and the Blue states have voted Democratic. The Red states consist of the South (e.g. Alabama), the lower Midwest (e.g. Oklahoma), and the Mountain Region of the West (e.g. Montana). The Blue states are those of the Northeast (e.g. Massachusetts), the upper Midwest (e.g. Minnesota), and the West Coast (e.g. California). Less well known is the fact that the Red and Blue states also differ significantly in family terms, and this may help to explain their politics.

Comments

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1. Chris said the following at 2:04 AM on Jul 20:

I find it interesting that the Nordic countries are used as a sort of benchmark. They often rank near the top in surveys when it comes to life expectancy, quality of life, access to health care, etc., etc. I recently heard that one of those countries (can't remember which one) accounts for only .3% of the world's population but 3% of exports.

It seems those "secular individualists" are doing pretty well for themselves.....

2. DannieA said the following at 11:04 AM on Jul 20:

so maybe i was tired when I read the full report...the marriage gap....

ok then isn't this an indicator that people marrying after college and later in life are actually a benefit to having a better marriage unity rate?

That's why sometimes it bothers me when I read the blogs that say that we are pushing marriage too late..?

I don't know maybe I misunderstood?????

3. Valerie said the following at 2:36 PM on Jul 20:

Chris, the issue isn't material wealth/quality of life, but what's best for children. It's wonderful to have great access to health care, but it can't solve the emotional/social problems of a generation of kids whose needs for stability have been put on the back-burner by parents who sought only for their own happiness.

DannieA, the report does say that the most stable marriages are by older, more educated people. Unfortunately, they also tend to have less kids--so most kids aren't getting the benefits. It doesn't have to be this way (as the study indicates)---if young people were better informed about how to pick a good spouse, how to sustain a marriage, and expected to take on the responsibilities of adulthood sooner, it would be better for everyone involved. The older you are when you have kids, the more problems you are likely to have with fertility---and the less time you (and your parents) will be able to spend with grandchildren.

4. DannieA said the following at 3:56 PM on Jul 20:

by less kids do we mean 2? Does everyone have to have 3-8 kids???? Life is pretty expensive so I'm not sure if having only 2 kids is a problem or not?

5. Steve Watters said the following at 4:43 PM on Jul 20:

DannieA asked about the marriage gap. The report does show that college educated women are doing better on many scales compared to those who didn't attend college. The point following the good news, however, is one we've talked about here at Boundless. Here's what it says:
"In large numbers, therefore, the college educated part of America is living the American dream—with happy, stable, two-parent families. There is one problem, however, and it is a serious one for the future of the nation. College-educated women aren’t having enough children to replace themselves. In 2004, for example, twenty four percent of women 40 to 44 years old with a bachelor’s degree were childless, compared to only fifteen percent of those without a high school degree."

While college-educated women are much less likely to avoid the many disadvantages of having a child before marriage, some are finding that the overlap between prime education/career development years and prime childbearing years push them away from goals they may have once had for children.

6. Patricia said the following at 5:34 PM on Jul 20:

Well...I still don't the problem in college age women only have 2 children. The overall population in the US isn't decreasing...just among small socioeconomic groups. Luckily, we have a high number of immigrants. There's no danger of depopulation in the US or a large class of elderly with no one to suppor them (which is the danger in a few countries, ie Japan for example because of both a low immigration and birth rate).

7. Valerie said the following at 9:15 AM on Jul 21:

My point about older educated people having fewer kids than those who aren't wasn't necessarily to say that they should be having more children. Some people are already choosing to get married young and have kids (more than the older, educated)...we should do more to make sure they are prepared for what is facing them. If we can teach kids how to use a condom, we should be able to better prepare them for marriage and parenthood.

8. Robert J Espe said the following at 7:44 AM on Jul 23:

Immigrants keep the population up, but if there are more of them than of the country's own people, you have a problem. If Americans (not whites but Americans) quit having kids, we will simply fade away as the continent is repopulated by others. Same thing is already underway in Germany...

9. Esther said the following at 12:02 PM on Jul 23:

I think Steve was getting at this point, but maybe didn't say it clearly: one of the best indicators of whether people will go to college is if their parents went to college. There was a huge push for men coming back from WWII to go to college. The GI bill was available, there was a need for educated individuals, and a great deal of economic growth, as well as greater awareness of a world outside of the small communities where people grew up. The children of these men grew up expecting to also go to college, and the effect of this boomer generation has been felt in academia ever since. However, if our population gap is being filled with uneducated people groups, the interest and push for education may very well decrease. I recently talked to a man from Mexico who brought his 4 children to this country to gain the advantages of America. Yet his highest goal was to have a little house in the country, with a cow and some chickens. He'd like his kids to finish high school (he himself was practically illiterate), but he had no thought of college. This will not keep our country at the forefront of technology and trade.