The Family - Marriage & Divorce (Week 18) Flashcards
Why has Marriage rate been falling?
- People marrying at a later age, reducing the number of marriages in a year.
- Some people choose not to marry at all now.
Serial Monogamy
This is where an individual may be involved in a sequence of sexually exclusive relationships, but only one at a time.
* This sometimes happens because of a death of a partner but today divorce is the main cause.
* There has been an increase in serial monogamy.
* Some people have serial relationships and never get married.
Reasons for marital change
- Demographic changes
- Some age groups more likely to marry than others
- Less stigma attached to having children outside marriage
- Cohabitation is a popular alternative
Reason for Marital change
Demographic changes
- Marriage in the Uk was most popular after the second world war (1970s).
- There was a baby boom > greater number of babies were born > led to population growth > led to rise in marriages in the 1970s when the first wave of baby boomers reached adulthood.
Reason for Marital Change
Age Cohort Differences
- There are peak periods when marriage is more likely. So more people in that age range = higher number of marriages.
- Number of children or elderly in a population affects marriage stats.
Reason for Marital change
Change in attitudes
- Less social pressure to get married these days.
- Women have more career opportunities and greater financial independence > less economic pressure to get married.
- Marriage is now a ‘lifestyle choice’ > women are less likely to enter a relationship that limits their ability to have a career.
Reason for Marital Change
Co-habitation
- Has risen as an alternative to marriage.
- Self & Zealey - cohabitation numbers are high because people delay marriage.
- Secularisation has led to changes in the meaning and significance of marriage.
- Importance of the institution of marriage has declined.
- Beck (1992) - People in post-modern societies assess the likely risks/consequences of their actions and avoid them by not getting married. eg. the likelihood of divorce, emotional & economic consequences
- Around 25% of young people now co-habit
- The number of co-habiting families has increased from 9% in the 2000s to 15% now.
- Gillis (1985): co-habitation rates are not legally recorded so stats aren’t very reliable.
Smart & Stevens (2000) Cause of increase in co-habitation
- Reduced social pressures of marriage
- Lower levels of stigma attached to living with someone and not marrying.
- The wider availability of birth control and abortion.
Empty shell marriage
When people still live together because they cannot afford to live apart but no longer have a ‘loving’ marital relationship.
Why Divorce Rates have increased?
- More marriages = more divorces
- Same sex couples have been able to marry since 2014 which has increased divorce rates.
Divorce Statistics
- 107,599 divorces of opposite-sex couples in 2019, increasing by 18.4% from 90,871 in 2018.
- 822 divorces among same-sex couples in 2019, 428 divorces in 2018
- Unreasonable behaviour was the most common reason for divorce in 2019
Grounds for divorce
- 62% of divorces of opposite-sex couples in 2019 were petitioned by the wife.
- Unreasonable behaviour has only been the most common ground for husbands petitioning since 2006.
- in the 1980s-1990s adultery was the most common ground for husbands petitioning and between 1999-2005 it was separation (two years with consent).
Duration of Marriage
- In 2019, median duration of marriage for divorces in opposite-sex couples was 12.3 years. 2018 it was 12.5 years.
- In 2019, median duration of marriage for divorces in same-sex couples was 4.3 years for men and 4.1 years for women
Divorce over 65
- Older people in the Uk are getting married and divorces in older age.
Silver separators
- number of brides and grooms aged 65 and over went up by 46% in a decade, from 7,468 in 2004 to 10,937 in 2014.
- This is due to the post-war baby boom and people living longer.
