These statistics show that marriage remains popular despite the reduction in the number of marriages. A reason for the decrease in first time marriages could be because of the increase of cohabitation (where a couple live together but they do not feel the need to marry). This increase is linked to changing social attitudes towards sex outside marriage. Before the 1960s, it was considered unacceptable for unmarried women to be sexually active. Official records show that the proportion of people cohabiting has more or less doubled over the last 20 years.
It is said that most people will marry at some point in their lives, but people are deciding to marry later in life, most likely after a period of cohabitation. A reason for this is probably because couples want to “Test the water” before they make any commitments. Evidence to support the “marrying later in life” view is that the average age for first-time bridges in 2003 was 29 years and for all grooms 31 years, compared with 22 for women and 24 for men in 1971. In particular women may want to delay marriage so they can advance their career prospects. As well as a decline in the total number of marriages, there is also a decline in marriage rates (the number of people marrying per 1000 of the population aged 16 and over).
Two thirds (67%) of the British public now look upon cohabitation as acceptable, even when the couple have no intention in getting married. Divorce has become more socially acceptable and there is less social disapproval and stigma attached to divorces. It no longer hinders careers through a public sense of scandal and outrage. As a result of this people are less afraid of the consequences of divorce and are more likely to end an empty shell marriage. Young spouses and young marriages are most at risk.
Vulnerable Population Teen pregnancy general refers to a pregnant female under the age of twenty. Teen pregnancy is associated with poor prenatal care and pre-term delivery (Brown, 2010). Pregnant teens are more likely to receive late or no prenatal care, have gestational hypertension and anemia, and achieve poor maternal weight gain (Webster, 2004). Teenage mothers are also more likely to have a pre-term delivery increasing the risk of child developmental delay, illness, and mortality. Teen mothers are more likely to drop out of school, remain unmarried, and live in poverty, their children are more likely to be born at low birth weight, grow up poor, live in single-parent households, experience abuse and neglect, and enter the child welfare system.
Mitchell and goody (1997) claim that important changes since the 1960's has rapidly declined stigma attached to divorce. This implys people attitudes towards is no longer the same and that people have more choice in their marriage. It also shows divorce would increase as in terms that your decision is valued by society and you may even get support.
Moreover because of these birth control techniques family sizes have decreased as more and more women now have more control over births than they did in the 1900’s, so they are choosing to have less children as a result of this. Secondly women’s position in society has changed; they have become more equal to men and are given more equal opportunities in workplaces, as Rapoport (1969) termed “dual-career
Item A states that only half as many people are getting married today. There are many reasons why marriage rates have decreased over the years. Religious significance has dropped dramatically in many western countries including the U.K. Many people no longer feel that marriage is essential. As less people are religious, they are more likely to cohabit or divorce without fear of ‘living a sin’.
This increased the amount of time before a divorce could proceed and counselling was introduced in order to reduce divorce rates. The changes in the law suggest that the government was making divorce somewhat easier so that married couples can have a divorce. Another reason for changes in the divorce rate is the Welfare State. State benefits helped women get a divorce, especially those with children. This suggests that women who are single parents but are married and want a divorce are dependent to the state because the state pays single parents more money.
Parents spend a lot of money for their son or daughter to better them through higher education. Alcohol directly causes that investment to be wasted away. “Alcohol consumption before and during final exam period is detrimental to students’ performance. The effect is particularly significant for the highest-performing students, according to the study” (Daily Princetonian Staff) this quote explains how alcohol consumption is directly associated with failing grades, even in usually high performing students. The quote came from a study taken during finals week at a college.
Q9. Examine the reasons for changing patterns for marriage and divorce for past 50 years or so. Marriage is the legal relationship between two people in eyes of law. The changes that occur in marriages rate were that less people got married meaning there was a decrease in marriages when as the divorce rate had become more common meaning the have increased .Those changes were caused by reasons that will be examine in this essay. The main and most important reason for the decrease in marriages and increase in divorces was the fact that changing attitudes towards them.