Item from the Smart
Marriages Archive, reproduced in the Divorce Statistics
Collection
From an article in Journal of Marriage and the Family (1989, Vol. 51,
No.
4, pp. 873-893) by Univ. of Michigan family demographer Arland Thorton,
it
reports that in 1985-86, 66% of young women and 55% of young men reported
that it was "very likely" that they would stay married to the
same person
for life. Also, another 21% of young women and 26% of young men said it
was fairly likely that they would stay married to the same person for
life.
That's 87% of young women and 81% of young men who are optimistic about
long-term marriages. Could attitudes have shifted that dramatically in
such short a time? I corresponed with the author of the study. He said
he
has done some analyses on more recent reports of this question (as yet
unpublished) and found very little change in the 90s. People remain
optimists about first marriages lasting. Let's not let poor journalism
make people think otherwise, especially when we know a lot about how to
make that happen.
Alan Hawkins, BYU
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