American Marriage Research Articles

The Reactionary Road to Free Love: How Opponents of Same-Sex Marriage are Destroying the Institution They Seek to Defend

Much has been written about the possible effects on different-sex marriage of legally recognizing same-sex marriage. This article looks at the defense of marriage from a different angle: It shows how rejecting same-sex marriage results in political compromise and the proliferation of “marriage light” alternatives (e.g., civil unions, domestic partnerships or reciprocal beneficiaries) that undermine the unique status of marriage for everyone. In the process, it examines several aspects of the marriage debate in detail. After describing the flexibility of marriage as it has evolved over time, the article focuses on recent state constitutional amendments attempting to stop further development. It categorizes and analyzes the amendments, showing that most allow marriage light experimentation. It also explains why ambiguous marriage amendments should be read narrowly. It contrasts these amendments with foreign constitutional provisions aimed at different-sex marriages, revealing that the American amendments result largely from anti-gay animus. But they also reflect fear of change. This article gives reasons to fear the failure to change. Comparing American and European marriage alternatives (from covenant marriage to various forms of marriage light) reveals that they all have distinct advantages over traditional marriage. The federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) adds even more. Unlike same-sex marriage, these advantageous alternatives are attractive to different-sex couples. This may explain why new marriage light regimes increasingly extend to all couples, and why these gender-neutral marriage alternatives – once established – tend to become permanent. In the end, all couples could be left with cafeteria options for legal relationship recognition. This may be a good solution, but it is certainly not a conservative one.

Ralph Richard Banks, Is Marriage for White People? How the African American Marriage Decline Affects Everyone

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The Newest Jews? Understanding Jewish American and Asian American Marriages

This paper investigates how racial, ethnic and religious identities intersect among couples where one spouse is Jewish American of any racial or ethnic descent and one spouse is Asian American of any religion or ethnic descent. While intermarriage is certainly not limited to these kinds of partnerships, there is reason to believe that these partnerships may become increasingly common when investigated along racial, ethnic, and religious dimensions. This study incorporates interviews with 31 intermarried couples residing in the Los Angeles, Orange County, San Francisco, Oakland, New York, and Philadelphia metropolitan areas. In particular, we highlight participants’ discussions of two main subjects: shared values within their partnerships and racial, ethnic, and religious identities of children, if present. Our paper expands the broader sociological literature on intermarriage as well as the specific literatures on intermarriage for Jewish Americans and intermarriage for Asian Americans.

Is marriage for white people?: how the African American marriage decline affects everyone

Is marriage for white people?: how the African American marriage decline affects everyone

Stormy Weather: Middle-Class African American Marriages Between the Two World Wars

Stormy Weather: Middle-Class African American Marriages Between the Two World Wars

Stormy weather: middle-class African American marriages between the two world wars

The so-called New Negroes of the period between World Wars I and II embodied a new sense of racial pride and upward mobility for the race. Many of them thought that relationships between spouses could be a crucial factor in realizing this dream. But there was little agreement about how spousal relationships should actually function in an ideal New Negro marriage. Shedding light on an often-overlooked aspect of African American social history, Anastasia Curwood explores the public and private negotiations over gender relationships inside marriage that consumed upwardly mobile black Americans between 1918 and 1942.Curwood uses private correspondence between spouses, including her own grandparents, and public writings from leading figures of the era to investigate African Americans' deepest hopes within their private lives. She follows changes and conflicts in African American marital ideals--and demonstrates how those ideals sometimes clashed with reality. In the process, Curwood shows how New Negro marriages are an especially rich site for assessing the interactions of racial, class, and gender identities.

I Wanted a Fresh Start from Where I Was: Rural Low-Income Women's Experiences of Multiple Partnership Transitions

Rates of union disruption between romantic partners--whether through divorce, separation, or dissolution of cohabitation--are substantially higher in the United States than other Western countries (Cherlin, 2008). It is estimated that approximately 25% of all American marriages end in divorce or separation within five years and more than half of cohabiting relationships are dissolved within five years (Cherlin, 2008). Yet, rates of re-partnering also are high, with more than half of the women who end their partnerships entering new relationships within four years (Andersson & Philipove, 2002). Partnership transition rates or instability, however, vary by social-class. Working or poor families are more likely to experience partnership transitions than their middle-class counterparts (Wells, 2005). Those with less education, particularly women, are the most vulnerable (Cherlin, 2010). Consequently, it is becoming increasingly common for low-income individuals to experience multiple partnership transitions during adulthood in the United States.To date, research examining partnership transition/instability has focused primarily on child outcomes or maternal parenting. In addition, the majority of studies conceptualize partnership instability as a discrete, singular event, such as divorce, separation, and dissolution of cohabitation, rather than a series of multiple transitions over time (Beck, Cooper, McLanahan, & Brooks-Gunn, 2010). Further, most previous studies have investigated urban, low-income populations, even though the greatest increase in cohabiting households with children in the last decade has occurred in rural areas (O'Hare, Manning, Porter, & Lyons, 2009). This study begins to fill in some of these knowledge gaps by focusing on rural, low-income mothers' experiences of and explanations for multiple partnership transitions.The higher rate of family instability among low-income households compared to other social classes has become a national concern as it is associated with a decrease in family finances, increase in welfare dependency, and higher likelihood of negative developmental outcomes for children. A substantial body of literature indicates that as children are exposed to multiple changes in family structure, they experience less positive developmental outcomes (Osborne & McLanahan, 2007; Sun & Yuanzhang, 2008). Negative outcomes include behavioral problems, delinquency, and teenage pregnancy (Cavanagh & Huston, 2006; Fomby & Cherlin, 2008; Wu & Thomson, 2001). Osborne and McLanahan (2007) reported that each partnership transition modestly increased the likelihood of a child exhibiting behavioral problems. Even one partnership transition, such as a separation, introduces multiple stressors into family life, which could include changes in family rules and routines, reassignment of household roles and responsibilities, challenges in meeting the emotional needs of family members, and readjustment of family finances. In the case of partnership dissolution, mothers and children tend to experience substantial declines in their financial and social resources (Bradbury & Katz, 2002). Additionally, mothers often report more psychological distress following, rather than preceding, partnership transitions (Crnic, Gaze, & Hoffman, 2005), and these transitions often lead to high levels of mental distress (Blekesaune, 2008).Despite the negative financial, emotional, and psychological outcomes that follow family transitions, recent evidence reveals that multiple partnership transitions over short periods of time are increasing (Burton, Cherlin, Winn, Estacion, & Holder-Taylor, 2009; Cherlin, 2010; Sassler, 2010). Burton et al. (2009) investigated the role of trust/distrust in low-income mothers' partnership formations and claimed that mothers who rapidly enter romantic relationships are less likely to collect information about their partners' trustworthiness than those who enter relationships gradually. …

Archaeology and Anthropology of Salt: A Diachronic Approach • The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry • Is Marriage for White People? How the African American Marriage Decline Affects Everyone • White Identity: Racial Consciousness in the 21st Century

Archaeology and Anthropology of Salt: A Diachronic Approach • The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry • Is Marriage for White People? How the African American Marriage Decline Affects Everyone • White Identity: Racial Consciousness in the 21st Century

Waiting to Be Asked: Gender, Power, and Relationship Progression Among Cohabiting Couples

The majority of young married Americans lived with their spouses before the wedding, and many cohabited with partners they did not wed. Yet little is known about how cohabitating relationships progress or the role gender norms play in this process. This article explores how cohabiting partners negotiate relationship progression, focusing on several stages where couples enact gender. Data are from in-depth interviews with 30 working-class couples (n = 60). The women in this sample often challenged conventional gender norms by suggesting that couples move in together or raising the issue of marriage. Men played dominant roles in initiating whether couples became romantically involved and progressed to a more formal status. Although women and men contest how gender is performed, cohabiting men remain privileged in the arena of relationship progression. The findings suggest that adherence to conventional gender practices even among those residing in informal unions perpetuates women's secondary position in intimate relationships.

The Demilitarization of Thai American Marriage Migration, 1980–2000

In this study, we look at marriage migration patterns among Thai Americans using US Census data drawn from 5% PUMS sets made available through the IPUMS project. Marriage is one of the most important means of migration to the USA and the overwhelming majority of Thai Americans are foreign-born women married to non-Thai men. Therefore, the sources and nature of Thai marriages to non-Thai men constitute essential elements of contemporary Thai migration and can provide valuable insight into how this key process of marriage migration can be established and maintained. Analyzing data from 1980, 1990, and 2000, our results are consistent with the argument that much of the marriage of Thai Americans to non-Thai is historically rooted in the military connection between the USA and Thailand. However, there is evidence that the marriages of Thai women to non-Thai men have been “demilitarized.” The military background of spouses has become much less compelling over the years as a predictor of the types of marriages resulting from marriage migration. Therefore, we argue that the American military presence in Southeast Asia established a pattern that continued to contribute to marriage migration even as that presence greatly diminished.

The Marriage‐Go‐Round: The State of Marriage and the Family in America Today ‐ by Andrew J. Cherlin

The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family in America Today. Andrew J. Cherlin. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 2009. 271 pp. ISBN 9780307266897. $25.95 (cloth). As Andrew Cherlin points out in his most recent book, marriage in the United States differs in fundamental ways from marriage in other Western countries. On the one hand, most Americans strongly support marriage and bestow a considerable degree of symbolic value on it. Correspondingly, most people marry, marry relatively early, and remarry if their first marriages end in divorce. On the other hand, most Americans embrace the tenets of expressive individualism: the belief that people have a right - perhaps an obligation - to seek personal happiness and psychological growth. As a result, large numbers of Americans divorce every year because they do not feel fulfilled in their marriages. Because of these two contrary cultural models, people in the United States form partnerships, split up, and repartner more often than just about anywhere else. Curiously, this pattern - a high rate of union formation combined with a high rate of union dissolution - appears to have existed throughout American history, albeit not as sharply as in the present era. Although earlier observers have commented on the unique features of American marriage, no other writer has developed these ideas as clearly and comprehensively as Cherlin has. Cherlin argues that cultural support for marriage is related to. the central role of religion in American life. Religion is taken more seriously in the United States than in most Western societies, as reflected in attendance at religious services and the widely shared conviction that religion should play a central role in everyday life. Religious influence had its origin partly in early colonial life, when many immigrants (who viewed marriage as the cornerstone of society) came to the United States to escape religious persecution in Europe. More important, because a single religious tradition does not dominate in the United States (in contrast to many European countries), Americans are able to seek out religions that best meet their personal needs in an open marketplace of beliefs and practices. Because most religions value and support marriage, most Americans have accepted marriage as a central feature of life. The flip side of the coin is American individualism. This cultural element was originally manifested in utilitarian individualism - the beliefs that people can succeed through hard work; should seek their own solutions to problems without the assistance of the federal government; and in a frontier society, should go west to seek their fortunes. The more recent manifestation of this cultural element is expressive individualism - the belief that people should seek personal growth and emotional fulfillment through their jobs and social relationships, including marriage. The American way of marriage may be unique, but does that matter? From an adult perspective, it is not clear whether frequent turnover in intimate relationships is good or bad. Although some adults may suffer from the strains of repeated relationship instability, other adults may benefit from opportunities to keep trying until the right marriage partner comes along. Cherlin argues that we should be concerned, however, because relationship instability is not good for most children. Having to adjust to parents (and parents' partners) moving in and out of the household is stressful for children and increases the risk of emotional and behavioral problems. Of course, research on divorce suggests that children benefit, in the long run, when marital dissolution removes them from highconflict homes in which parents have overtly hostile relationships (Amato, Loomis, & Booth, 1995). Correspondingly, when parents remarry after divorce (or marry for the first time after a disrupted cohabiting union), some children develop close relationships with stepparents and benefit from the presence of a supportive parent figure in the household (Hetherington, 2006). …

Race Matters, Even in Marriage: Identifying Factors Linked to Marital Outcomes for African Americans

Although many African Americans share a sociohistorical background, empirical research on family and marital processes has often overlooked a great deal of heterogeneity within the group. In addition, African Americans face different stressors and life circumstances from the general population. Given that a high proportion of African American marriages end in divorce and that African Americans report relatively low levels of marital quality, it is important to consider factors that may not be addressed in models of marriage that were developed using the majority population. We introduce a model that includes components relevant to understanding marriage among African Americans, including financial strain, racial discrimination, and minority status. Using the model, we review the literature and highlight gaps in existing research.

A Potential Lesson from the Israeli Experience for the American Same-Sex Marriage Debate

In the past decade American marriage law has been the arena for a major controversy regarding same-sex marriage. Typically, liberals tend to support same-sex marriage, while conservatives oppose it. The liberal-conservative dispute concerning Same Sex Marriage is usually related to a broader debate on the legitimacy of limiting the possibilities for marrying: liberals present marriage as a private arrangement between the partners, and they therefore oppose restricting the right to marry The opponents of single-sex marriage, in contrast, legitimize legal limits to the right to be married by presenting marriage as a public institution.Based on the unique experience amassed in Israel on this question, I seek to reveal the potential consequences of the struggle between liberals and conservatives regarding limitations of the right to marriage for an additional liberal-conservative confrontation concerning the uniqueness of legal marriages, and the difference between them and alternative family types.The conservative position limiting entry to marriage won a decisive victory in Israel. Accordingly, partners of the same sex, like partners from different religious communities, are not allowed to formally marry. Generally speaking, the right to marry is subject to a broad range of civil and religious restrictions. Ironically, the strict limitations on the right to marry were a trigger for the development of the institution of cohabitation as a substitute for formal marriage. Accordingly, the array of the rights and obligations of cohabitants is approaching that of married partners, and at times even exceeds the latter. I will argue for the existence of a similar dynamic in the United States, where the distress of same-sex partners serves as the basis for notions and proposals, both in the academic realm and in the more general public realm, for strengthening the institution of cohabitation, the weakening of the institution of marriage, and at times even the abrogation of marriage as a legal institution.On the background of this developing dynamic, and taking into account the aggregate Israeli experience, I will advance three arguments: First, I will present a conservative critique of the conservative position against same-sex partners. I will argue that, in the final analysis, the conservative camp's relative success in negating the possibility of same-sex marriages harms this camp's broader agenda for the preference of legal marriages.Second, I will present a liberal critique of the liberal camp. My proposition is that, despite the essentially liberal motivation for weakening legal marriages in order to decrease the gap between them and cohabitation, in many instances this activity harms the liberal values of freedom of choice and autonomy in the name of which they act.Finally, I will argue on behalf of democratic compromises such as civil union in the United States and spousal registry in Israel.

A Survey of North American Marriage and Family Therapy Practitioners: A Role Delineation Study

A comprehensive licensing examination is an integral part of the process used by states and jurisdictions to regulate the profession of marriage and family therapy. The examination was initially developed by the Association of Marital and Family Therapy Regulatory Boards (AMFTRB), an organization representing various licensing boards that regulate marriage and family therapy. AMFTRB periodically updates the examination using a number of well-established psychometric procedures which include the use of a role delineation survey. The results of one such survey recently sponsored by AMFTRB are reported. Using a stratified random sampling procedure potential participants from North America (United States and Canada) were mailed the AMFTRB survey which netted a grand total of 473 respondents. A composite description formulated from data obtained in the survey indicates that a marriage and family practitioner is most likely to: have a Masters’ degree, be a Caucasian/non-Hispanic female aged 51 to 60, work as a private practitioner, be licensed as a marriage and family therapist (but not to have taken an examination), work mostly with individual clients, and theoretically rely upon behavioral therapy, solution-focused therapy, or Bowen family systems.

Assessing the effect of marital sexuality on marital disruption

Little is known about how marital sexual interaction influences eventual marital disruption, despite research in various disciplines examining the sex lives of the married. This relatively unexplored area compels sociological inquiry, since most Americans will marry, yet nearly half of all American marriages are expected to end in divorce. Surprisingly, no one has posed the question: does frequent, satisfying, and/or agreeable marital sexual interaction early in marriage help to sustain a marriage? With panel data from the Marriage Matters Panel Survey of Newlywed Couples, 1998–2004, I utilize these three indicators (frequency, satisfaction, and agreement) to assess this question. The results provide evidence that the influence of marital sexuality on marital disruption is limited. However, interesting gender nuances appear and indicate that husband’s satisfaction with physical intimacy early in marriage has a consistent positive effect on whether or not the couple will experience a marital disruption.

What Do We Know About the Link Between Marriage and Health?

This special journal issue presents nine new studies on the relationship between marriage and health among African Americans. It discusses health disparities between African Americans and other racial and ethnic groups, offers an overview of African American marriage rates, and presents evidence for the marriage-health link in this population.

Behavioral Economic Issues in American and Islamic Marriage &amp; Divorce Law

This paper will outline some of the behavioral economic issues found within marriage and divorce law. Using the modern American Marriage and Divorce System (AMDS) as a starting point, this paper will discuss how the Islamic Marriage and Divorce System (IMDS) can be seen as responding to and addressing a number of these behavioral economic issues within marriage and divorce law. However, before either system can be discussed in detail, some of the basic concepts and terms found within the IMDS need to first be explained.

Factors That Facilitate Relationship Entry Among Married and Cohabiting African Americans

This article examines whether social class differences influences low-income, married and cohabiting African Americans to realize that they are in a “coupled” relationship. To determine the extent to which social class influences the assessment of “couple” status in these partnerships, we examined the qualitative responses of 30 cohabiting and 31 married African Americans to a question regarding the specific event in their relationship that made them realize they were a couple. Qualitative analyses of the data resulted in four delineated themes: (1) relationship marker, (2) affection/sex, (3) having or rearing children, and (4) time and money. Supporting qualitative data are presented in connection with each theme. The sociological aspects of income on African American romantic relationships are also discussed.

“Together, We Are Strong”: A Qualitative Study of Happy, Enduring African American Marriages*

Abstract: Thirty African American married couples (N = 60 individuals) were interviewed regarding the challenges and benefits of their happy, enduring marriages. Qualitative coding and analysis revealed 4 key themes: (1) Challenges in African American Marriages, (2) Overcoming External Challenges to Marriage, (3) Resolving Intramarital Conflict, and (4) Unity and the Importance of Being “Equally Yoked.” Supporting qualitative data are presented in connection with each theme. Implications for enduring marriages among African Americans specifically are discussed.

Alienation of Affection Torts: Love ’Em or Leave ’Em?

The alienation of affection tort, which allows a plaintiff to sue a third party for interfering with the plaintiff's marriage, has been disparaged by many as a relic of women's former status as their husband's property. Despite its archaic roots, the tort as it operates today is in many ways quite modern and addresses some of the problems, expectations, and obstacles of modern American marriage. Furthermore, it fits in with developments in tort law toward more actions for nontangible, nonfinancial damages. Given the tort's history, one might assume that it benefits men, but women also benefit from and use this tort, as demonstrated in a case study of North Carolina, a jurisdiction where the tort is frequently pursued. In its current form, the alienation tort can be reconciled with feminist theory and with women's interests, and should not be abolished without reconsideration.“Those whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder.”Book of Common Prayer 1789