The Divorce Rates And Successful Marriages

There is a staggeringly large amount of divorces in the United States (US). In total, the US had a recorded total of 2,140,272 marriages in the year 2014 alone, and of those marriages, 813,862 ended up in divorce or annulment (Center for Disease Control). This means that as recently as 2014, there was a divorce rate of approximately 40%. This supports the statistics that the divorce rate for the US has stayed within 40-50% since the 1970’s (Austin Institute, 2014). While the numbers themselves are important, it is also important that the causes for the high divorce rate be explored, so that it can be known what pitfalls to avoid when participating in such an important union as marriage. There are many causes of divorce in the US such as conflicting gender roles, socioeconomic status, religious conflicts, physical abuse, emotional abuse, alcohol addictions, and many more (Amato & Previti, 2003). This paper will look at many of these reasons, but it will also focus on the differing reasons reported by men and women.

As stated in our text, various factors can bind married couples together, such as economic interdependencies, legal, social and moral constraints, relationship, and amongst other things. In the recent years some of these factors have diminished their strengths. The modern generation sees marriage in a different perspective altogether. Individuals today feel they are stable independently, they do not need to rely on their spouse for emotional or financial support. Many are career driven and soar to conquer their dreams over settling down with a family. Such untraditional views have increased divorce rates.

We question the relation between premarital cohabitation and divorce. From looking at literature regarding this question I hypothesize that time and social change determines cohabitation and divorce.

“Will Your Marriage Last?”, by Aviva Patz, is a cohesive article about marriage and divorce. Aviva Patz is the executive editor of Psychology Today. Patz narrates the story of Ted Huston, a professor at the University of Texas, who followed the lives of 168 couples for 13 years after their wedding date. She was then able to draw conclusions about what makes a couple stay together or end up filing divorce papers. Although marriages and divorce are the themes of this article, it is really about society’s pressure on young people to be perfect.

Divorce is the legal severing of marital bonds and is on the rise in North America. In 2011, divorce in Blacks or African Americans is at an all-time high. Divorce has many implications for a society. If current trends continue, researches postulated that if African American children were not born outside of wedlock, the African American population would fail to reproduce itself and would rapidly die off. Blacks who are married live longer, are wealthier, happier, and choose healthy behaviors compared to Blacks who are divorced. Many Blacks living in the South or the “Bible Belt” of America profess faith in Christ or other spiritual connections, are often frequent

The majority of people who join together with their significant other through the act of marriage hope and dream that marriage will surround them with infinite love and happiness; unfortunately that is not always the case. In fact, “according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2013 American Community Survey, 10 percent of Maine women and 11 percent of men in Maine are divorced.”1 Though 10 and 11 percent seem like fairly small percentages, 10 percent of Maine women is approximately 67,831 women, and 11 percent of Maine men is approximately 71,506 men, which truly are not small figures to take into consideration. Since marriages do not always have a happy ending

Throughout time, practices that were once never used, become more common. In the 1600s divorce was a forbidden practice or a last resort. Since then, laws have changed, and so hasn’t the stigma related with divorce. The guilt and fault that divorce once carried has vanished. According to the book Should I Keep Trying to Work it out, “In the United States, researchers estimate that 40%–50% of all first marriages will end in divorce or permanent separation. The risk of divorce is even higher for second marriages, about 60%.” (Hawkins 42). As it became more common for couples in America to separate, divorce gradually became a normal part of so many lives. Why are so many couples separating now? Through research on EBSCO, and other findings, I will attempt to explain this question that so many people ask in today’s world. The divorce rate in America is drastically increasing over time due to new laws, certain generations, and relationship issues.

In this paper I will discuss divorce trends and the break-up of the black family. We will identify the roots of divorce, the slave experience and how this has carried over into today’s society. We know that divorce exists across all races, all ethnicities and in every area of the world but will focus our attention to the population that seems to have the largest rate of divorce, one text suggests the rate as being 47 percent among the black community (Lauer, 2012)

Marriage requires effort and work. Many newlyweds come into a marriage thinking it is easy but do not consider the consequences of marriage that heavily rely on balances and partnership. Marriage is all about compromise. It is important to engage in a premarital program to allow both partners to learn what to expect within a marriage, how to face certain roadblocks, and to better communication when conflict is aroused so that divorce does not become an option. Gottman’s research (2009) has made a significant contribution to the study of relationship and marriage tying unity, harmony, and communication together to make relationship and marriage work. When a couple who does not have consummate love (intimacy, passion, and commitment), they often portray the six indicators of divorce: harsh startup, the Four Horsemen, flooding, body language, failed repair attempts and reflecting on bad memories (Gottman, 2009). Divorce often occurs within the first two years of marriages and almost half of divorces end within the first seven years (Bhutto-Ramirez, 2015).

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2011 there were 2,118,000 marriages in the United States and almost half as many divorces (2013). The CDC also reports that only half of all first marriages will reach their twentieth anniversary. Divorce is a topic everyone is familiar with and it has almost become a normal part of life. While it is assumed that more divorces occur now than in the previous generation, the CDC actually reports that divorce rates have dropped over the past twenty to thirty years, though this could be due to the increase in individuals who live together without ever getting married or those who simply separate and cannot afford to become legally divorced. However, it has become a more

People in America are determined to get married and live together. Married couples want to share everything and depend on each other. However, fifty percent of these couples cannot seem to fulfill their marriage vows. As a result, they choose to get a divorce. Divorce is very easy to do nowadays unlike the past. Statistics show that the four main causes of divorce are: financial difficulty, women are more independent, infidelity, and couples are getting married at a young age.

The sanctity of marriage has seemed to have disappeared with the arrival of the 21st century. Though marriage rates have always fluctuated in the past, current events have caused divorce rates to increase. According to recent statistics made by the census bureau, the divorce rate in America is roughly 50 percent. There are a myriad of speculations as to why more people are not staying together. One reason is that people are getting married for the wrong reasons, such as unplanned pregnancies. Another reason is that women have become more independent so that they are not forced in to being in a marriage where they are not happy. Last, lenient divorce laws make it much easier for many couples to get divorced. Combined, these three

In the last 25 years, divorce has become a major issue in American society. Since the turn of the century, the divorce rate has held steady between 4.0-3.2 divorces per 1000 people per year (National Vital Statistics System, 2015). With this rising divorce rate, more children are living between parents, or in single family homes, and many of these children have been exposed to altercations between parents, as well as rough custody battles and divorce settlements. Traumatic experiences like these are highly likely to stick with children of divorce throughout their life, especially if the child is older at the time of the divorce.

These constraints lead some cohabiting couples to marry, even though they would not have married under other circumstances. On the basis of this framework, Stanley, Rhoades, et al. (2006) argued that couples who are engaged prior to cohabitation, compared with those who are not, should report fewer problems and greater relationship stability following marriage, given that they already have made a major commitment to their partners. Several studies have provided evidence consistent with this hypothesis (Brown, 2004; Rhoades, Stanley, & Markman, 2009).

The purpose of this research is to establish if there is a positive or negative correlation between premarital cohabitation and subsequent marriage dissolution. An extensive literature review was conducted as means to find data from which a conclusion would be drawn. The literature review began with a quantitative study was analyzed for its use at being the most effective method for collecting, analyzing, and reporting data on multiple subjects within one study. A qualitative study was also analyzed due to the fact that information regarding relationships is often classified as being unable to be generalizable due to the personal nature of relationships. Drawing a conclusion is heavily dependent on a meta-analysis, which is why the last step in the data collecting process leaned toward analyzing a meta-analysis. The most common conclusion in all of the studies indicated that premarital cohabitation has a negative effect on marital quality. Premarital cohabitation is a risk factor that can lead to a subsequent marital dissolution.