...Examine the reasons for and patterns for changes in the patterns of marriage and cohabitation There have been many changes in the pattern of marriage and cohabitation. For example there are now fewer marriages taken place and remarriages now include divorcees rather than widows and widowers. Many people are also remarrying later in life. This essay will examine the reasons for these changes. Firstly, there are fewer stigmas attached to marriage. There is now less pressure to marry and people are free to choose the type of relationship they want. The widespread believe that the quality of the couple’s relationship is more important than the status of their marriage has greatly weakened the norm that everyone ought to get married. People are also less likely to get married in a church. Churches influence on society is decreasing because they hold strong views on matters such as having children outside marriage and cohabitating in which more and more people are disagreeing on. Churches are also less likely to marry divorcees, who make up the greatest proportion of people in society, which deters people from marry in church Changes to the position of women have also led to the changes in the patterns of marriage. Women now have higher status jobs and earn a lot more than they used to. There is a shift from the view that the women’s role is to care for the children and look after the home. This is because women are becoming more successful in education and are able to pursue...
Words: 539 - Pages: 3
...Over the last forty years there have been dramatic changes in the patterns of marriage and cohabitation. Marriage refers to the legal contract between individuals that creates kinship. Yet, cohabitation is when two people live together as a couple without being married. The patterns of marriage have transformed a lot over the past forty years. In 1972 480,000 couples got married; however since then the number of marriages in England and wales has declined with only 244,710 couples marrying in 2005. Similarly, the patterns of cohabitation have varied as in 1986 only 12% of women were in a cohabitating couple, and now around 2.2 million families are cohabitating couples both with and without children. These patterns have changed for several reasons such as expenses, less social expectations, job opportunities, higher rates of divorce and major changes to people’s attitudes towards marriage. Financial issues are a contributing factor as to why the rate of marriages is declining and why cohabitating is become even more popular. Initially, the average cost of a wedding is £25,000 which is often a drawback for couples deciding to marry, hence why there is an increase in couples cohabitating. However there are even more financial issues for married couples, if the couple decide to part it means the divorce will have to go through a legal system which is both time consuming and costly. Unlike a marriage, if a cohabitating couple choose to go their separate ways there aren’t any legal...
Words: 949 - Pages: 4
...rather than with married parents. Nearly 20 percent of births today are to cohabitating parents, according to Susan L. Brown at the Center for Family and Demographic Research.Almost 40 percent of children will spend time in a cohabiting household by age 16. Living together is now common, but it is not without consequence—particularly for children. The effects of this family structure on children are just beginning to be understood. However, initial research by Brown and others suggests cohabitation is generally a less stable family structure than married couple or single-mother households. While there is some evidence that children in cohabiting households fare worse than those in married or single-parent families on several key indicators (Manning & Lamb, 2003), what is less clear is why. Do these negative outcomes stem from something inherent in the family structure? Or are these effects due to the types of parents who choose to cohabit (rather than to the experience of cohabitation itself)? How does living in a cohabiting household affect both children and adults? Impact on Children Development Spending extended time in cohabiting households at an early age is linked to slowed cognitive growth and language acquisition in children. Brown notes that even in stablecohabiting households, children show smaller gains in mental development. The Urban Institute finds children in cohabiting homes are also less likely to be read to than other children. Poverty Poverty is...
Words: 7560 - Pages: 31
...Examine the reasons for changes in the patterns of marriage and co-habitation in the last 40 years. [24] Marriage is traditionally conceived to be a legally recognized relationship between two consenting adults that carries certain rights and obligations. Cohabitation is an arrangement whereby couples who are not legally married live together in partnership within the common law. Cohabitation has now become a very common way of living. The patterns of marriage have varied quite significantly. Statistics show that in 1972, the number of couples (480,000) near the Second World War got married. The reason for this was because of the baby boom generated in 1950s reaching the marriageable age and these people choosing to marry at a younger age. Women were getting married at the age of 22 and men at the age of 24. Recently, the trend of getting married went into decline, in 2005, only 284,000 couples got married. Also, in comparison to 1972, men were getting married at the age of 31 and women at the age of 29 in 2004, showing that the trend was decreasing and the age of marriage was slowly increasing. Wilkinson (1994) suggests reasons as to why the trend in marriage has dropped so significantly. He notes that women are going through a ‘genderquake’ suggesting a radical change to the female attitude towards marriage and family life. She argues that young females no longer prioritize marriage and children; this could be due to there being more opportunities for women within education...
Words: 1058 - Pages: 5
...Most countries in the world have very different love and marriage laws. These laws are often adjusted over time to match change in social values. Transformative trend of the past one hundred years has led to large changes in attitudes to love and marriage between contemporary society and earlier times. Marriage can be defined as a vow between two people to remain together as a couple. It has a civil form and a religious form. There is a great diversity of types of love and marriage, and social attitudes to some of them have changed greatly. In particular, attitudes towards cohabitation, gay and lesbian marriage and sole parenting were more accepted in the world. A cohabitation relationship can be defined as living together of two people as partners but without a marriage certificate. Gay and lesbian refers to marriage between people of the same gender. Sole parenting concerns a parent who is raising their children without a spouse. One area of serious alteration is in attitudes towards cohabitation which has become more acceptable. In the past, cohabitation was considered to be shameful. However, today there are many people who live together as a couple without marriage. This is more popular in modern life than ever before. In Viet Nam for example, cohabitation is a new phenomenon in society over the last few years and has become a widely spreading trend. Viet Nam society used to base on Confucian values. Most children in the family were expected to live formally. Losing...
Words: 1454 - Pages: 6
...Examine the reasons for the changes in the patterns of marriage In the last 30 years, the British society has experienced many changes affecting the family. There have been changes in attitudes to and expectations of family life, as well as official changes such as government legislation. Society has been affected by feminism, which has led to increased awareness of women’s rights and freedoms, as well as postmodernism and secularisation. The changes resulting have affected marriage rates, which are decreasing, and more people are now marrying later in life and more than once. More people are choosing to cohabit, either before or instead of marrying, and this is becoming increasingly common in young couples. Divorce rates have also increased in the last 30 years, following changes in legislation and attitudes. As society’s view of a ‘conventional family’ has changed over the last 30 years, the acceptable norms have widened. In the past, an unmarried woman would be looked down on, as it was expected that women would marry and invest their time in raising a family. If they didn’t, it could be presumed that could they couldn’t find a willing partner, or that there was something wrong with them. Although 95.1% of British women still marry before they are 49, it has become more acceptable to choose not to get married, and rather than being looked down on, single women are more likely to be viewed as strong, focussed, and independent. This means there is less pressure on...
Words: 1675 - Pages: 7
...Outline reasons for the decline in first time marriages (10 marks) There are numerous reasons for a decline in first time marriages; these could be a simple change in the attitude toward marriage, secularisation, a change in the position of women, a fear of divorce and a decline in the stigma attached to alternatives to marriages. A change in the attitudes toward marriage, there is less pressure to marry and there is more freedom for individuals to choose the type of relationship they long to be in, this could be cohabitation or just a relationship without living together. In today’s society, there is a widespread belief that the quality of a relationship has higher importance over the legal status. The norm that everyone ought to marry has been greatly weakened and the level of stigma toward those who hadn’t married no longer was as strong as it used to be. In previous years, men who were single didn’t need to marry but women who were single needed to marry as they were not financially independent; people now choose to live as creative singledom, which means anyone, any gender, can live financially independent and not have the need to get married. Secularisation means that society has moved from religion to a nonreligious society. This influences first time marriage as churches influences on marriage is declining so that people have the right to choose not to marry. According to the 2001 consensus, 3% of nonreligious people were married in comparison to 17% of people with...
Words: 617 - Pages: 3
...Introduction In recent years, there is an increasing rate of cohabitation in the society. Cohabitation by definition is two unmarried people living together. In moral values, this does not seem an appropriate situation because there is no marriage between the couples. However, cohabitation is a chance and requirement to establish strong bonds at the relationship. I became interested in the topic because of my own situation. I am a Christian, so according to the Bible, it is considered a sin to live together outside of marriage. However, I stand in grace. As a grace believer, I know that if I was going to live under law, breaking one “rule” means you break them all. What a frightening thought considering everyone falls short in some area or another. My thought on the subject is that I have seen both sides of the story, and having married young and watching the marriage fall apart, I am very content just living with my significant other. Marriage is a commitment, and before God we have said our vows to each other, but according to man we have not. I feel as though we are married, but I also do not feel as though signing legal documents will change anything accept gain the approval of the world. It is not my intentions to live in sin, but I also do not feel as though it is necessary to sign a bunch of papers just to gain the approval of man. I suppose I feel so strongly because I have seen how devastating marriage can be, and although any relationship can end, the repercussions...
Words: 2728 - Pages: 11
...choices to pick from how to tell if a source is even worth to look at without having to expend a great amount of time looking at each one through. Even though non-credible sources are easier to find, credible sources are more reliable because they are usually written by experts and have more substantial information in them. If we take a credible source like “Rising prevalence of cohabitation in United States may have partially offset decline in marriage rates” from the Family Planning Perspectives and compared against a non-credible sources like “Cohabitation in the United States” from Wikipedia, we can see that the article from the credible source has the components that help sort out a credible source from a non-credible. The article “Rising prevalence of cohabitation in United States may have partially offset decline in marriage rates” from the Family Planning Perspectives has the main things that you should look in a credible source. First of all I found the article in the CINAHL with Full Text database from the library most popular database list. I made sure I used the Boolean word Cohabitation in USA and I limit the results to only show full text and peer-review articles. The article is written in a very professional manner, also even though the article was written 1990; it has fairly recent review date of 2009. The information that the...
Words: 825 - Pages: 4
...paper is to inform the reader of the challenges that face marriages in today’s society. It researches the issue of cohabitation before marriage and how people view it whether it is harmful to the marriage or how it can help the marriage be more successful. Another issue that is reviewed is the issue of infidelity. It discusses the problems that arise from infidelity and touches on the reconciliation process that couples have to go through if they have a desire to stay in their marriage. Communication and forgiveness within the marriage is also discussed. Challenging Issues that Face Marriages Today Introduction In the world today, there are a lot of marriages going through some trying times. Parents have put their children first instead of their spouse which have created a barrier between the couple. Some families are dealing with extra effort children that require more time with them and put their spouse on the back burner. Financial burdens have been over whelming for some marriages causing stress, anger and even resentment. The issues that this research paper is going to explore are the challenges of cohabitation, infidelity, communication, and forgiveness. These issues seem to be an important part of marriages that are continually brought forth in many therapy, counseling, and laypersons offices. Premarital Cohabitation Couples will move in together before marriage for many reasons. These reasons include financial situations...
Words: 2264 - Pages: 10
...Because I chose to believe God’s Word, I know that what we may label today as “fundamental change in our culture” will inevitably completely destroy marriage and the family unit, at some point in the future.(1) Our culture has changed; however, "traditional marriage" still has a place in the modern world, and is therefore not an outdated and archaic institution. If we look closely at those that believe otherwise, we will most likely find their choice to be founded on hurt, resulting from marriage, or a lack thereof. Indeed, “[the] CDC finds [that] more U.S. couples [are] living together instead of marrying” (Health Day, 2013); further, a cursory comparison between 2000 and 2013 statistics, gives the impression of an alarming trend toward cohabitation.(2) However, for the time being, the same statistics demonstrate that the majority of In the modern world, does "traditional marriage" still have a place, or are we seeing a fundamental change in our culture?either marry or break up; therefore, cohabitation is not (currently) intended (by the majority) to replace marriage. Although deceptively attractive, easy and convenient, in my opinion, cohabitation, is caused (at the root) by poor parenting, characterized by dysfunctional, unsupported and selfish parents that recycle and multiply unhappiness and an unfulfilled need for companionship, coupled with fear of commitment.(3) “Marriage is the most basic and fundamental part of our society, and as such it should be protected...
Words: 957 - Pages: 4
...interlinked reasons for changes in the patterns of marriage, cohabitation and divorce in the last 30 years. The number of marriages has declined as a result of most people are getting married later in life, although cohabitation has increased rapidly due to the changing social attitudes and the divorce rate has increased as changes in law made it easier to obtain. Since the 1970s, there has been a significant decline in marriage, from 480,000 marriages in 1972 to 306,000 in 2000. Women's expectation of marriage and life has increased since 1970s. Some sociologists argue that we place an increased value on romantic love, which had resulted in more marital breakdown. Young and Wilmot suggest that in the west we have a romanticised, unrealistic view of marriage and family life. Over the past 30 years, people have tended to marry later. Living together as a couple, partly accounts for this. Many couples see cohabitation as a prelude to marriage. Also, they are less likely to give up their careers and independence as now women are financial independent. When our marriage doesn't live up to our increased expectations we are more likely to give up on it in search of the perfect marriage. Functionalists such as Ronald Fletcher Talcott Parsons claim that people expect and demand more from marriage. They believe that higher divorce rate reflects a higher value placed on marriage. Feminists argues that it is women rather than men who are increasingly dissatisfied with marriage due to traditional...
Words: 583 - Pages: 3
...Family Law Assignment 1. The issue of cohabitation has sparked much debate among commentators as cohabitation has become a ‘strong alternative’ to marriage. This means that there have been calls for the law to recognise cohabitation but critics say this would undermine marriage. Within this answer we will look at the current status of the law especially the law to do with family property, the proposals for reform and look at the different arguments. If we look at the current law when it comes to marriage each party can seek court orders requiring one party to pay maintenance and the court has the power to redistribute any property owned by either party. Also on death the living spouse is the next of kin. However the court has no similar power to ‘adjust’ rights and property, they only can ‘declare’ who owns what. This can be seen where cohabiting couples have family property. Under the Law of Property Act 1925 section 53 express trusts have to made in writing .In this case the court can divide the property according to the written declaration. But this not the case where there is an implied or constructive trusts. Firstly there has to be common intention in which there has to be evidence which shows whether the property was supposed to be jointly owned .Secondly the claimant has to act to their detriment. However this system may not have favourable outcomes. As seen in Burns v Burns where the plaintiff lived with the defendant for nineteen years but never married...
Words: 3808 - Pages: 16
...Sociology Homework: Marriage, Divorce and Family Diversity • Explain what sociologists mean by 'serial monogamy'. (2 marks) When sociologists use the term 'serial monogamy' they mean the practice of having a number of long-term romantic or sexual partners in succession. • Suggest two reasons for the growth of one-parent families. (4 marks) One reason in which one parent families have grown is due to the fact that only half the amount of people are currently getting married. This effects the lifestyle children are growing up in as they may not see a set of adults being completely committed, also it may give the children the idea that they do not necessarily need to get married when they're older. This is jeopardising the traditional family. Another reason may be divorce has risen enormously. More and more people are becoming divorced which draws a division between children and their parents. It is statistically proven that divorce/ separation of parents has resulted in children having behaviour problems and being more involved in crime. Maybe it's a cry for help, it is obvious that the child(ren) is emotionally scarred due to the separation of their parents. • Suggest three reasons for increase in the divorce rate. (6 marks) There are many reason why the the increase rate in divorce has risen. The most crucial and common one is money. The stress of finance can make or break a relationship. Money is the most important and talked about thing in society. Therefore...
Words: 530 - Pages: 3
...Nullity and Void Jasmine mentioned that she would like to make her current marriage to Annabelle null or void in some way. The meaning of marriage is the union of 2 people meaning since all the formalities were upheld their marriage is valid. The Family Law Act 1975 s 51 (FLA) states that a marriage may be null if the marriage is considered void. Void is not defined in FLA or Marriage Act 1961 (MA) however, In the Marriage of Miller (1983) 49 ALR 689 it is defined as the validity of the marriage being challenged. Void also means that the marriage was invalid from the beginning due to an essential defect that caused the marriage to never come into effect. In accordance with s 23B (1) of the MA, the only way the marriage is able to be...
Words: 1691 - Pages: 7
