SPONSORED BY:

Americans Marry Too Much

 
The Smart Quiz

Take NEWSWEEK's incredibly hard news quiz to see how well you know national affairs.

 
 

Email To A Friend

Please fill in the following information and we'll email this link.

Separate multiple addresses with commas

SPONSORED BY
 

OK, we still have the highest divorce rate in the world. But that's the problem—"We divorce, repartner, and remarry faster than people in any other country," says Andrew Cherlin, a Johns Hopkins sociologist and author of the new book The Marriage-Go-Round. Because many of the people racking up multiple marriages are also parents, American kids are more likely than those in other developed countries to live in a household with a revolving cast of parents, step-parents, and live-in partners moving in and out of their lives—a pattern that is definitely not good for children. Cherlin says he was particularly stunned to discover that American kids born to married couples experienced 6 percent more household disruption by age 15 than Swedish kids born to unmarried parents. Experts predicted that the study would find exactly the opposite, since research has long shown that cohabiting relationships are more fragile than married ones. "Remember, we're talking about the 'avant-garde' Swedes compared to the 'conservative' Americans," Cherlin says. When researchers broadened the categories, they were further surprised to find that American families were less stable: 40 percent of American children born into a two-parent family experienced a parental breakup by age 15, compared with 30 percent of Swedish kids. And American kids are 47 percent more likely than Swedish kids to have a stepparent move into their home within three years of a divorce. The further down the economic ladder the parents are, the faster the turnover occurs because splits tend to be less complicated (there's less stuff to divide up before the relationship is dissolved). The bottom line is that while marriage is good for kids, it's best when it results in a stable home. Or as Cherlin puts it, "Many of the problems faced by America's children stem not from parents marrying too little but rather too often."

NEXT: Race Relations Aren’t Black and White

© 2009

Label

Newsweek Top Stories
Gone Rogue
Gone Rogue

How Sarah Palin hurts the GOP … and America.

The Decade's Best Quotes
The Decade's Best Quotes

NEWSWEEK's 20/10 Project recalls the lines we'll never forget.

Best Celebrity Mugshots
Best Celebrity Mugshots

10 unforgettable arrest photos from the 2000s.

An Evolutionary Edge
An Evolutionary Edge

How grandmas may play favorites.

Discuss

Sponsored by

Member Comments

  • Posted By: mozi @ 08/23/2009 6:19:03 PM

    where the hell did you get 85%. if your line of thought is because you "think" it is true than you should re-think it cause that it is not.

    quoted from: New America Media
    "The number of single-mother families increased from three million in 1970 to 10 million in 2003, while the number of single-father families grew from less than 500,000 to 2 million. There are now 3.1 million black single mothers compared to 6.4 million white single mothers"

    the study goes on about other misleading information about single black mothers

    http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=0b237a9b1f0ed62a9fb384dbaa7ffb43

  • Posted By: gbbarbie @ 08/20/2009 7:01:21 PM

    It's a joke. Marriage should never be a "declaration of love" but a framework or contract of commitment/sacrifice to be a team in modeling health, education, ethics, morals, etc in order to raise and nurture children (future citizens) to achieve emotional, intellectual and spiritual contentment/happiness, especially at parental sacrifice. Divorce just teaches children failure, narcissism and the inability to work as part of a team. Without children in the picture, I see no reason for marriage. Why should any declaration of "undying love" alone confer any tax benefit? Besides, its very minor and doesn't begin to make up for the $200K it costs in today's dollars to raise a single future engaged taxpaying citizen. Come on America, take marriage more seriously.

  • Posted By: tyronetyrone @ 08/20/2009 3:59:04 PM

    I feel like blacks have more children than anyone else in the entire world. This is a very disturbing fact because 85% of the time it is only the black mother raising the children. What can we do to stop this insanity?

Reply

Report Abuse

Enter comments if any for reporting abuse

My Take

Customize the NEWSWEEK homepage
to feature your favorite columnists.

Customize Now