Marriage: A Fundamental Social And Cultural Institution

Marriage rates have decreased in the United States, in the 1970s there were 76.5 marriages for 1000 unmarried women over 15 years of age and in 2008 it dropped to 34.8 marriages for 1000 unmarried women (Lee and Payne 2010). Marriage rates have decreased for a number of reasons, education attainment, religion, change of social norms, and many more. According to Jeremy E. Uecker and Charles E. Stokes (2008), the age of marriage is related to school enrollment. Right after high school, at the age of 18, there is more of a chance of marriage at this time then in the age of 19, the reason for this is that at the age of 19 most young adults are entering college and not focused on relationships and marriage (Uecker and Stokes 2008). The chance

     In years past, the American Dream for most young girls’ is to grow up and be married to Prince Charming and to “Live Happily Ever After!” Although this may be expected - it is rarely fulfilled. Marriage is the legal and binding union between a man and woman. Yet when couples marry, they vow to stay by their partner’s side ‘till death do us part.’ Currently that vow seems to have little or no value in today’s society. The current statistics for survival of marriage are quite grim. The divorce rate in the United States is somewhere between 50 percent and a startling 67 percent. (KSL News) One contributing factor the growing epidemic of divorce is the parting of different family

Next, many women were under the age of nineteen got married in the 1950s and started their families with their husband (PBS). Women that went to college in the 1950s did not have a college degree because they potentially had to look for husband or else was in danger of being an old maid if they were not married. (PBS). It is different today because women can get married in the United States at any age and not be part of a social norm that happened in the 1950s. Partners that marry young in their early 20s today have a higher chance for divorce than partners who marry after the age of 25. (Pearlman pg. 203). According to Amato and Rogers (1997) says reasons that young married couples have problems in their marriage is because of infidelity, jealously, lack of maturity, and financial problems (Pearlman pg. 204). People also marry young because of the wrong reasons in today’s society For example, this wife was married to her husband because both

Last, and most important, is that studies have not shown that more hours spent on homework leads to more knowledge. Time spent on homework does not correlate to better test scores. Some students can spend twice as much time as others and still not do as well. Grades do not necessarily improve with more hours of homework.

For hundreds of years young children were married off early in life sometimes 12 years old for girls, and 14 years old for boys. So why doesn’t that happen now? This simply is because starting in the early 1900s the age “limit” as some would say started increasing. Now instead of having to be 12 or 14, a person has to be anywhere between 15 and 21 to get married. Some of the reasons why this change occurred is compulsory state schooling, child labor laws, and studies showing the negative effects of early in life marriages (Dahl).

A survey of 14000 adults states in ‘A Guide to Family Issues: The Marriage Advantage’ that marriage was a pertinent factor contributing to happiness and satisfaction with forty percent of the married individuals being happy as opposed to 25 percent of either single or cohabiting individuals. The same study shows that ninety eight percent of never married respondents wished to marry and out of those 88% believed that it should be a lifelong commitment. Even though, divorce rates are rising numerous researches show that young people aspire to have a lasting marriage.

Romeo and Juliet In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, many would argue that the characters grow up too fast. This relates to our world today where teenagers do things in order to act more grown up then they really are. Peer pressure from friends and classmates can lead teenagers to make decisions in order to make them look “cool” and “grown-up”, which are basically synonyms nowadays. The older generations always tell kids to enjoy being young while it last because once it’s over, it’s over, and you can never get those moments back.

it’s like we’re doing it as best friends.”. In our interview we also spoke of marriage and young love. As Brian said, “... 18 would be a good age to get married because you know by the time you’re 18 you know what you want.. you got your life together.. or if not, probably 20’s… and no, you can never be too old to get married.”. Although having relationships at a young age, Brian stated that one should be a bit more older or mature enough to know what they want to pursue in life and that they can never be too old to get married. As for young young love, Brian advised, “..don’t rush into it, and get to know the person better.. and stay loyal..” When it comes to Brian’s perspective on love, he speaks of being comfortable with the person, waiting for the right time before taking their relationship further and to stay true to one’s self. After the interview I learned from Brian, that one must be true to oneself and be comfortable with the other person.

Hareven, Tamara K. (1994). "Aging and Generational Relations: A Historical and Life Course Perspective". Annual Review of Sociology.

The simplest and most basic foundation of a sociological civilization or group begins at the core center of sociology; which is marriage and the inner-fabric creation of a family. It is said that matches are made in heaven, however finding and defining your “soul mate” differs from one social group to the next. The social institution of marriage changes and adapts consistently through time, religious practice, and national beliefs. Many people believe they lead happy and satisfying lives without a marital partner, as others highly value and desire a life-long marital partner as the pinnacle achievement of their life.

Having marriage be at the start of their teen lives was harsh because until one of them died, they were together for forever because divorce was no such thing in the 16th century. The common age for marriage was twenty-five to twenty-six for men and twenty-three for women. Traditionally marriage was performed by a priest and only by the blessing of the church.

The marriage often fails as the couple are not mature enough to take full responsibility or make certain decisions which can have an enormous impact on their life. Apparently, 18 is considered to be the legal age to get married by a majority of the population who believe that as puberty hits, they become mature. According to Candy (2011), our brain is in a continuous process of development till the age of 25, and our prefrontal cortex has emerged only half way until 18 years old. He also states that it is an important part of the brain that helps us to overcome our drives assembling our brain to make wiser resolutions more appropriate to reach the desired goal. Lack of intimacy and discontented sexual relationships can be another contribution to divorce (Grunditz,

Today, the idea of marriage conjures images of bashful brides beautifully draped in all white, of grandiose flower arrangements climbing towards the ceiling, of romance personified. As an institution in this modern world, marriage represents the apex of romantic love, with an entire industry of magazines, movies, and television shows devoted to perpetuating marriage as an idealized symbol of the ultimate love between two people. Contrarily, as a sociological institution, marriage comes from much more clinical and impersonal origins, contrasting with the passion surrounding modern understandings of the institution. Notably, french anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss theorizes that the institution of marriage emerged from a need to form alliances between groups, with women functioning as the property exchanged so that such alliances could be solidified (Levi-Strauss).

In today’s society, adolescents have a positive opinion about cohabitation before marriage. The view of marriage as an institution has faded and cohabitation has taken a new part of this culture (Martin, Specter, Martin, & Martin, 2003). It has often been questioned whether or not premarital sexual activity causes marriages to be disrupted. According to Teachman, Premarital sex and cohabitation has not

In conclusion, we know that many implications of early marriage that we can take as guidance in our daily life. A joint effort to formulate and implement policies and strategies is needed. In