22. Study Finds Why Marriage Is on the Decline

Marriage has weakened as an institution in the United States with fewer people saying "I do" than at any time in the nation's history, a new study reveals.

The study, "The State of Our Unions: The Social Health of Marriage in America," found that the national marriage rate has dropped 43 percent over the past four decades to its lowest point ever.

The study's researchers blamed the decline of marriage on a new trend where more and more couples are opting for alternatives such as living together outside of marriage or putting off the marriage vows until later in life.

Nearly half of people ages 25 to 40 have at some point lived together with a person of the opposite sex, the study notes. Because of this new trend, marriage is no longer viewed as the traditional, expected route into adulthood.

The report released by the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University in New Jersey reviewed statistics on marriage and divorce from the last four decades to find out how many people were getting married, at what age and how many of those marriages lasted. It also based some conclusions on interviews.

The report found that people's view of marriage itself has also changed in the last four decades.

A large number of teenage girls in particular do not believe in marriage. They don't believe that marriages last.

From 1976 to 1980, 68 percent of teen girls surveyed thought it was likely they would stay married to the same person for a lifetime. In 1995, it was 64 percent.

However, the percentage of teenage boys who thought they would have only one mate for a lifetime edged up from 57 percent during the 1976 to 1980 period to 59 percent in 1995, the study says.

Teens' loss of faith in the idea of finding a lifetime mate is key in explaining the decline of marriage. It is no longer a realistic goal for many of them.

Instead, many young people openly accept living together and unwed parenthood, the study notes.

According to the study, only 30 percent of girls and 40 percent of boys responded that married people are happier than those who stay single or live with a mate out of wedlock. In the late 1970s, about 39 percent of girls and 38 percent of boys agreed with that statement, the report notes.

"Young people today want successful marriages, but they are increasingly anxious and pessimistic about their chances of achieving that goal," explains Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, report coauthor and co-director of the National Marriage Project.

Women's disenchantment with marriage may reflect their higher expectations for emotional intimacy in marriage and more exacting standards for a husband's participation in child-rearing and the overall work of the household, the study notes.

Another reason for the decline of marriage is women's growing economic independence, the study says.

Because women are better educated and more likely to be employed outside of the home today than in the past, they are not as dependent on marriage as an economic partnership. They are less likely to "put up" with a bad marriage out of sheer economic necessity, the study states.

Today's popular culture also has contributed to the decline of marriage, the study notes.

"Popular culture reinforces this sense of pessimism, even doom about the chances for marital success. Divorce is an ever-present theme in books, music and movies of the youth culture," the report notes.

"And real-life experience is hardly reassuring: today's young adults have grown up in the midst of the divorce revolution, and they've witnessed marital failure and breakdown firsthand in their own families and in the families of friends, relatives and neighbors," the report states. "The prevalent generational experience of divorce has made almost all young adults more cautious and even suspicious of marriage."

The study notes that the percent of young people who say they agree or mostly agree with the statement "one sees so few good marriages that one questions it as a way of life" increased between 1976 and 1992, while the percent of those who say it is very likely they will stay married to the same person for life decreased over the same period for males and females.

The study finally concludes that the institution of marriage is in serious trouble and that Americans are now less likely to be married than ever before, and those who do may seem to be less happy than in previous decades. And despite a modest decline in the divorce rate, nearly 50 percent of all marriages are projected to end in divorce or permanent separation.