Contemporary Marriage Research Articles

The Biggest Decision of Your Life(Time)? Examining the Politics of Married at First Sight

Lifetime’s “Married at First Sight” (MAFS) aired its seventeenth season in 2024, averaging 2.58 million viewers per weekly episode. In this paper, we ask, how does MAFS reflect and intervene in contemporary marriage politics, particularly regarding race, gender, class, and sexuality in the U.S.? To answer this question, we draw on scholarship about marriage as a political institution, and on reality TV as a window into contemporary socio-economic issues. Using interpretive, feminist methods of analysis, we find that MAFS reflects and intervenes in contemporary marriage politics by offering viewers a very traditional and exclusionary version of the institution at a time when it and everything else (reproductive rights and same-sex marriages, to name just two examples) is in flux. However, even as it attempts to offer a “balm” to all of this upheaval, in practice, the show’s “experimental results” offer something more complex, which both reflects the contemporary realities of marriage and attracts viewers.

Trafficked or Married? Unpacking Dispossession of Matrimonial Choice in Cross-Region Marriage Migration in India.

The article, based on original research from 246 villages, discusses contemporary marriage migrations of poor women from India's development peripheries to rural North Indian men. Anti-trafficking activists and organizations in India assert that migrant brides are trafficked into sexual slavery through 'coerced' alliances. Employing a postcolonial feminist lens, this article challenges hegemonic anti-trafficking discourse with its gendered presumptions about widespread 'bride-trafficking' by showing that the processes of cross-region marriage mediation and motives are replete with contradictions and ambiguities. Fieldwork reveals a range of actors, including the migrant brides, involved in marriage mediation while poverty and heightened dowry compromise women into such matrimonies.

Missio Maritatus in the Missio Dei: Genesis 1:28 for Marriage Missiology

Marriage is a sacred institution that represents God’s sent interpersonal relationships to proliferate humanity, rather than just the act of remaining as husband and wife. The phrase “be fruitful, multiply, and subdue the earth” is perhaps a better way to describe this missio maritatus, or marriage mission, as God instructs humanity in Genesis 1:28. God, the eternal missionary here, calls on humanity to be fruitful, multiply, and steward the earth. Although missiology has frequently examined how marriage intersects with redemptive goals within the complex framework of missio Dei, no study has formally introduced the theoretical framework of missio maritatus. This paper therefore presented the theoretical underpinnings of missio maritatus, which embraces the complexity of missio Dei and interprets Genesis 1:28 as expressing marriage missiology. It firmly based this mission’s theoretical framework on the central Christian doctrines of predestination and divine foresight. It states unequivocally that the limited traditional understanding of marriage still has issues, but it leaves it to future studies to define missio maritatus in light of contemporary marriage trends. To put it another way, despite its shortcomings, missio maritatus is a useful theoretical framework in missiology, and the scope of this paper justifies further investigation into this area. This paper makes two important contributions to the respective areas of theology: The first and most general part concerns practical theology, as it examines the intersection of marriage with broader Christian social theological teachings. Second, and perhaps more importantly, the novel development of the missio maritatus in missiology adds a new missio-theological framework which incorporates the institution of marriage with the context of the missio Dei. Keywords: Missio Dei, Human Creation, Genesis 1:28, Procreation, Missio Maritatus, Marriage Missiology.

From 20th century weddings to quarantine weddings: Old and new approaches to analyzing rituals

Although ethnographic studies of marriage in 20th century Hungary have reckoned with the impact of socio-cultural transformations on getting married, nonetheless they primarily emphasized the normative aspects and permanence of the ritual; they stressed that marriage preserved “traditions”, or even that folk tradition acting as an ethno-folk-national “matrix” preserved and maintained the wedding rituals. Even if they touched upon the transformation of rituals, they primarily highlighted the modernization, simplification, fragmentation of the act of getting married and the marginalization of original meanings, traditional community norms, ideologies, and roles. Could this static and normative image depicting marriage not as a changing but rather as a decaying, diminished institution be in fact the result and consequence of an epistemological tradition, a methodological-theoretical focus that hides the process of the emergence of a new conception of marriage based on free choice, improvisation and on the idea of the individual breaking free of the yoke of normative traditions? The purpose of my paper is twofold. I will examine what the earlier Hungarian ethnographic studies understood by constancy, normativity, traditional or modern of wedding rituals. On the other hand, based on my current anthropological research (2019-2022, during the Covid–2019 pandemic) I will analyze the contemporary marriage rituals: and using the results of my research I also undertake a different kind of rereading of 20th century ethnographic descriptions. My paper based on the results of my digital anthropological research carried out between 2019 and 2022 (online questionnaires, digital ethnography, and in-depth interviews). I argue that the earlier Hungarian ethnographic approaches to weddings at the time may have been significantly influenced by prevailing Hungarian and international normative conceptualizations and theories of tradition and modernity.

Contemporary Marriage in Cambodia.

Previous work has suggested that the drastic Khmer-Rouge-era changes to the family institution have not endured. Potentially more influential in the long term were the rapid socio-economic changes Cambodia underwent starting in the 1990s. We use four waves of the Cambodian Demographic and Health Surveys from 2000 to 2014 to document contemporary trends in marriage formation and dissolution. We find little change in the centrality of marriage, as both cohabitation and sex between unmarried partners remain quite rare. Marriage also continues to be nearly universal and early for women, but we find that the transition to self-arranged "love" marriages occurred earlier and faster than previously documented. A sign that parental endorsement may still matter though, marriage dissolution continues to be associated with spousal characteristics deemed undesirable by past generations. While higher among recent marriage cohorts, especially in the first year after marriage, levels of marriage dissolution remain comparatively low overall.

Problematiek rakende ‘opofferende en reinigende liefde’ in die bruid-en-bruidegom-metafoor (Ef 5:22–33)

The problematic use of ‘sacrificial and purifying love’ in the metaphor of the bride and bridegroom (Eph 5:22–33). The sacrificial love expected of the bridegroom in Ephesians 5:22–33 is a totally foreign idea in the culture of the first-century Mediterranean world in which the first Christians lived. An argument can be made that the working of the Holy Spirit within the believing men infiltrated the cultural boundaries and expectations with new values such as sacrificial love. However, ‘cleansing love’ as expressed in Ephesians 5:25–28 is an unfamiliar idea, even in our contemporary culture. How can the husband’s love cleanse his wife as Christ cleanses the church? To what extent can the metaphor of the bride and bridegroom be applied to the marital relationship between the present-day man and woman? This article examines the problematic ‘cleansing love’ as portrayed in the metaphor of the bride and bridegroom in Ephesians 5:22–33. A critical investigation is done into the symbolic importance of the bride and bridegroom metaphor for contemporary culture. Schüssler Fiorenza’s (2001) application of the approach of suspicion is followed to interpret the cultural roles assigned to female and male believers from a feminist point of view. The critical feminist approach and its meaning and application to the ancient context of the early Christians in Ephesus serve as the hermeneutical model of this article. Although certain aspects of the bride and bridegroom metaphor, representing Christ as bridegroom and the church as bride, can be applied to the relationship between a Christian bride and bridegroom, there are also aspects of Christ’s relationship with the church, such as his ‘cleansing love’, which cannot realistically apply to the Christian marriage. The husband’s love cannot purify and sanctify the wife (Eph 5:27). Everyone is responsible for his or her own salvation and sanctification. The wife does not need the love of her husband to be in a relationship with Christ, her heavenly bridegroom. Christ’s love cleansed the church, which consists of male and female believers. The love that Jesus demonstrated on the cross, should result in equality among all people.Contribution: The sacrificial and cleansing love of the bridegroom as portrayed in the metaphor of the bride and bridegroom in Ephesians 5 is problematic regarding the gender roles in contemporary marriages. A critical interpretation of the relevant metaphor respects the integrity of the text, but also sees the underlying message of gender inequality.

The Impact of Childhood Trauma on Adult Marital Attitudes: The Mediating Effect of Core Self-evaluation

With the development of the new era, the marriage attitude traditionally retained by society is changing, and the growth program of individuals is very important for the cultivation of core self-evaluation and the ideology of marriage attitude, so whether the level of contemporary individuals is very important for the cultivation of core self-evaluation and the ideology of marriage attitude, so whether the level of contemporary The study also examines the relationship between childhood trauma, core self-evaluation, and the ideology of marriage attitude, so whether the level of contemporary marriage can be improved by changing the degree of childhood trauma is an issue of concern. METHODS: The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ--SF), the Marital Attitude Scale (MAS), and the Core Self--Esteem Scale (CSTS) are used to measure the relationship between childhood trauma, core self--evaluation, and marital attitudes. The Core Self--Esteem Scale (CSES) were administered in a web--released format to 431 people, with subjects in the age range of 18 to 45 years. RESULTS: Childhood trauma showed a significant positive correlation with adult marital attitudes (r=0.643, P<0.01); and with core self-evaluation (r= 0.701, P<0.01). Core self-evaluation showed a significant negative correlation with adult marital attitudes (r=-0.454, P<0.01). Core self-evaluation partially mediated the relationship between childhood trauma and adult marital attitudes. CONCLUSION: The effect of childhood trauma on adult marital attitudes can be achieved indirectly through core self-evaluation.

결혼관의 개념화 및 측정의 이슈: 국내 선행연구 고찰

The purpose of this study was to critically review quantitative studies on attitudes toward marriage with a focus on the conceptualization and measurement in South Korea. We carefully reviewed 108 Korean journal articles published between January 2010 and July 2021 to understand how attitudes toward marriage were conceptualized and measured including the sub-domains. First, the studies lacked academic agreement in terminology and definitions. The studies used mixed terms and different definitions. Studies tended to cite well-known definitions without carefully considering the uniqueness of related terms and measures in each study. Second, attitudes toward marriage have been measured inconsistently, and the measures have been restricted, which threatens the validity and reliability of the measures. The wording of the items and response categories also varied. The studies based on the attitudes scales selected different measures and constructed sub-domains differently. Because we found no conceptual framework in the literature, we applied the marital paradigm, a conceptual model proposed in the U.S., to categorize the items used in the selected Korean studies. It is imperative to refine the way that attitudes toward marriage are conceptualized in Korea and to develop a new conceptual framework that is sensitive to contemporary marriage trends.

Intimate Connections: Marriage and mobilities across the modern Mediterranean and the Red Sea

The prism of marriage can be a unique opportunity to write a social and cultural history in the modern Mediterranean and the Red Sea. The progressive dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, followed by the different settings of colonial encounters and/or the nation-building processes, led to the reform and reordering of multiple and contemporary marriages practices in a complex and dense imperial space such as the Mediterranean and the Red Sea regions. Legal regulations of marriage in the (post)Ottoman space are the results of superpositions, interactions and convergences of multiple juridical practices and norms, that included religious, customary, and civil regulations. Here, mobility played a crucial role in establishing and breaking new conjugal bonds, thus tracing the intimate entanglements between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.

Examining the Family in the Light of Marriage Annulment as a New Research Perspective

The aim of this article is to outline a new research perspective, allowing for an in-depth reflection on the condition of contemporary marriages and families. Of course, the problem itself is not new, but in order to analyse it, we propose to adopt a perspective which has not been present in the literature so far and which will consist in analysing the condition of the institution of marriage through the prism of the process of declaring a marriage null and void, i.e., the canonical procedure in force in the Catholic Church.The proposed research perspective is based on an interdisciplinary approach, taking into account the broad context in which, in our opinion, the functioning of the contemporary institution of marriage should be considered. In this approach we try to integrate sociological and demographic premises and inspirations with legal, theological and canonical premises, which is a significant novelty. The integration of these approaches will make it possible to consider the problem of the break-up of the marital bond in a different way than has been presented so far. Thanks to this, it is possible to make a comprehensive diagnosis of the situation of marriages in moments of crisis and to capture those aspects of spiritual and social life which have not yet been taken into account in the research, and which play a particularly important role in initiating proceedings to declare a marriage null and void.

Examining the Family in the Light of Marriage Annulment as a New Research Perspective

The aim of this article is to outline a new research perspective, allowing for an in-depth reflection on the condition of contemporary marriages and families. Of course, the problem itself is not new, but in order to analyse it, we propose to adopt a perspective which has not been present in the literature so far and which will consist in analysing the condition of the institution of marriage through the prism of the process of declaring a marriage null and void, i.e., the canonical procedure in force in the Catholic Church.The proposed research perspective is based on an interdisciplinary approach, taking into account the broad context in which, in our opinion, the functioning of the contemporary institution of marriage should be considered. In this approach we try to integrate sociological and demographic premises and inspirations with legal, theological and canonical premises, which is a significant novelty. The integration of these approaches will make it possible to consider the problem of the break-up of the marital bond in a different way than has been presented so far. Thanks to this, it is possible to make a comprehensive diagnosis of the situation of marriages in moments of crisis and to capture those aspects of spiritual and social life which have not yet been taken into account in the research, and which play a particularly important role in initiating proceedings to declare a marriage null and void.

The Plays and Poems of Nicholas Rowe. 5 vols. Stephen Bernard, General Editor. Vol. 1: The Early Plays, ed. Rebecca Bullard and John McTague; Vol. 2: The Middle Period Plays, ed. Michael Caines; Vol. 3: The Late Plays, ed. Claudine van Hensbergen; Vol. 4: Poems, ed. Stephen Bernard, and Lucan’s Pharsalia (I–III), ed. Robin Sowerby; Vol. 5: Lucan’s Pharsalia (IV–X)

<i>The Plays and Poems of Nicholas Rowe</i>. 5 vols. Stephen Bernard, General Editor. Vol. 1: <i>The Early Plays</i>, ed. Rebecca Bullard and John McTague; Vol. 2: <i>The Middle Period Plays</i>, ed. Michael Caines; Vol. 3: <i>The Late Plays</i>, ed. Claudine van Hensbergen; Vol. 4: <i>Poems</i>, ed. Stephen Bernard, and <i>Lucan’s Pharsalia</i> (I–III), ed. Robin Sowerby; Vol. 5: <i>Lucan’s Pharsalia</i> (IV–X)

Hopes and reality: consumers\u2019 purchase intention towards whitening cream

In contemporary Bangladeshi society, popularity, marriage, and status are weighed on a scale where the vital criterion is a fair complexion. Women are encouraged to use whitening cream in its colour-conscious culture. The present study identifies the factors that influence consumers’ purchase intention towards whitening cream. A structured questionnaire was used to elicit feedback from 275 female respondents using the convenience sampling method. Structural equation modelling and hypotheses tests were conducted to validate the model after verifying the scale items’ reliability and validity. The findings revealed that attitude, involvement, and descriptive norms were significant factors, and injunctive norms, perceived quality, and price fairness were inessential factors in explaining Bangladeshi female consumers’ purchase intention. The framework used in the study can assist in product design. The study makes an important contribution to the literature by explaining why female consumers equate whiteness with beauty. Marketers should not use deceptive advertisements to influence them falsely; they should fulfil their expectations without causing harm or inciting racism.

Marriage rates of the population in Bulgaria: features and trends of change

The paper studies the past and contemporary marriage rates in Bulgaria. The analysis starts with the marriage patterns after the Liberation, when high marriage rates were observed, especially after the war periods. During socialism, the family was perceived as the main functioning cell of society and the marriage rates continued to be relatively high. In the 1990s and the beginning of the new century, a change in the marital behavior was observed &amp;ndash; a significant postponement of entry into marriage and motherhood led to a family model that had not been common in the past. The authors also conclude that there are different stages in the marriage patterns in Bulgaria &amp;ndash; both historically and spatially. The different factors affecting these processes are also studied and discussed in the paper.

The challenges of marital life: Factors of marital life decline

A human is a social being, who wants to achieve relations with other people. The most common form of close emotional relationships in adulthood is marriage. A married relationship can be implied in various ways and, although marriage lasts as a constant form of emotional attachment, contemporary marriage is in crisis. Actual social circumstances place various challenges before married life. In this work we have focused on some aspects which we recognized as potential factors of marriage destabilization. These include various empirical researches both in Serbia and abroad: the role of age in marriage, cohabitation, importance of primary family, children, economic stress, mechanisms of coping with stress, affective attachments between partners, solving conflicts, communication competence, distribution of house chores. Those are the factors that experts face in counseling and therapy works, solving marriage crisis. We see the quality of a married relationship as a multidimensional phenomena consisting of marriage satisfaction, marriage stability, marriage cohesion, marriage compliance. In this paper, we tried to show the complexity of marriage relationships in a nutshell and present the current research directions in this area of psychology.

Marriage is a Mirage

Indian female writers attempt to depict the problems of women in the modern society dominated by male chauvinism and in rural India in particular, touching the feministic sensibilities. These female writers handle astonishing variety of themes. Among the women modern writers of fiction Kavery Nambisan occupies a unique place for more than one reason.She has begun her literary career by writing numerous children’s books. Female characters in her novels truly feel that love and marriage are not mere accidents but it is a trap and a cage where emotional stress haunts them through lack of care, bondage and love.&#x0D; The character ‘Shari’ of Kavery Nambisan’s second novel Mango–Coloured Fish (2000), is a young girl, who is caught in a complex, entanglement of uncertainties and disillusionments, and she has different notions about the institution of marriage. Nambisan successfully depicted the contemporary younger generation pre and past marriage dilemmas and ordeals effectively and lively. The protagonist Shari wants to trace out her self-identity and freedom in this world and this is clearly presented in the novel Mango –Coloured Fish.

Gender Asymmetry and Mutual Sexual Relations in Online Legal Interpretation

As part of a larger research project which examines Muslim women’s sexual and reproductive health rights within the interlocutory space of online fatwas, this paper provides a glimpse into the co-construction, by muftis and petitioners, of an Islamic discourse of jurisprudence on sexuality in marriage. This paper argues that the discourse moves away from the dominant legal one of male sexual right and female responsibility to fulfil, towards an underlying and more subtle ethical discourse centred on mutuality. Combining a methodology of feminist post-structural discourse analysis with a legal interpretive framework drawn from classical legal methodologies, the paper analyses a fatwa by South African-based Deoband mufti Ebrahim Desai on his online fatwa platform askimam.org. Assessed alongside ancillary fatwas on his website, the analysis reveals how petitioners and muftis remain committed to the gender asymmetric legal (fiqh) ) rules governing Muslim marriage, yet also articulate views based on expectations of reciprocity and mutuality in sexual relations prevalent in contemporary marriage. Where some petitioners grapple with the dissonance created by their pietistic loyalty to the gender asymmetric legal tradition and ethical expectations of reciprocity and mutuality, muftis such as Desai respond by employing discernible strategies that produce a discourse of mutuality in sexual relations within modern marriage. This paper asserts that both petitioners and muftis in online fatwas like those of askimam.org, have the potential to reformulate and reconfigure present and future fiqh discourses on sexuality within Muslim marriage. This is evident in their alignment with an ethics of marriage and well being, located in ideals of reciprocity and mutuality.

Shoots of equal marriage and partnership in the Church of England: a harvest rooted and nurtured through practical theology

ABSTRACT From 2020 in England, civil marriage and civil partnership are legal for all couples. The Church of England is protected in civil law from change to its traditional theology of marriage between one man and one woman, so that only mixed-sex couples may marry in Church of England churches. A service is permitted for mixed-sex couples after a civil marriage, but no services are provided for same-sex couples or after civil partnerships. In this paper, qualitative research with practising members of the Church of England interrogates a widening gap in pastoral practice, between participants’ desire to welcome couples seeking a service with blessing and the lack of provision of liturgies by the Church. Interpretation of participants’ narratives of their own marriage or civil partnership as embodying mutuality and fidelity lead to consideration of liturgies of blessing for two people from the premodern era. I propose that contemporary marriage and civil partnership may be interpreted as unions of Christian harmony and peace which can be celebrated with blessing in church. I interpret emerging theologies of marriage and vowed friendship (expressed in civil partnership) within the Church of England as renewing the Church’s traditional three benefits of marriage: mutuality, fidelity, and choices for parenting and nurture, in ‘pro/creative’ relationships.

A New Logic of Marriage?

The analysis of social discourses on the necessity of contemporary marriage, as a form of legal coexistence, most often reproduces the same sets of answers - stereotype about the uselessness of the paper, about the difficulties of legal separation or about the imposition of rights and obligations, defined in the Civil Code. Thus, the orientation of the discourses seems to target the fear of failure rather than solidarity or internal fusion within the family micro-group. Against this background, the discussions about a legal alternative to marriage - the consensual union - seem to build the premise of a new conjugal relationship, cleared of any set of rules, predefined to be compulsory for the two partners. The idea of purity of the marital relationship is discovered in the scientific literature starting with Giddens (1992), where it is described as cohabiting. In his vision, Giddens believes that a pure relationship exists only as long as the mutual feelings between the two partners are present, the unhappiness of one becoming the sure premise of separation (Giddens, 1992). This is because, in the case of marriage, the sum of social and legal contexts requires the couple to make a series of compromises that often maintain the state of marriage artificially. Moreover, the latent failures of marital relationships require tolerance, acceptance and compromise rather than separation, and, as an additional source of pressure, the dissolution procedure seems cumbersome and with little social acceptance. Thus, in light of the two great dilemmas regarding the reduced impact of marriage in terms of marital vitality, but also from the perspective of the fluctuations of value with which the marriage is described, the socio-legal reconstruction of the marital law can become an alternative transit between the classical marriage and the European laws on consensual union. The study aims to analyze the social discourse on the views of manifesting autonomy in conjugal environments from the perspective of the existing marital legislation and the new legal resources described in the public discourse.

Love, youth or marriage? Comparative perspective of pictures of marriage, family and partnership in the eyes of polish and french students.

Family is one of the most important values in life of a man at every stage of his life, institution of moral development. But it still undergo transformation .Everyone is a part of family, though this structure , which part we consist of may be differ esentially. What are imagination about successful family, what kind of family would like to have young people in France and Poland, does marriage it’s foundations or partnership, is it related with children and with how many children? What is the attitude of responded students to homosexual relatinships, possibilities of raising children by them, cnditions of life of monoparental families, evaluations of others alternative form into marriagee and families, opinions about divorces, rising numbers of children born beyond formal marriages, and on the end-which is the course of contemporary marriage and family, this is the key questions asked franch and polish students. The final part incudes conclusions, as the results of examined differences.