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A publication of the National Marriage
Project. Please contact marriage@rci.rutgers.edu
or 732 445 7922 Marriage Decline in America Testimony
Before the Subcommittee on Human Resources David
Popenoe As the recent results of the Year 2000 Census
confirm, marriage as the basis of family life continues to decline in
America. Since 1970 the rate of marriage has dropped by about one third, the
out-of-wedlock birth ratio has climbed from 11% to 33% of all births, the
divorce rate has doubled, and the number of people living together outside of
marriage has grown by over 1000%. With the exception of nonmarital
cohabitation, which increased dramatically, the marriage-decline trends
decelerated a little in the 1990s. But they have continued in the same
direction. As of now, there is no tangible evidence of a turnaround, although
a more pro-marriage attitude does seem to be gaining ground in the media and
the culture at large. Why should this marriage decline be of national
concern? Principally, because of its effects on our nation’s children. The
social science evidence is now overwhelming that children fare better in life
if they grow up in a married, two-parent family. Children who grow up in
other family forms are two to three times at greater risk of having serious
behavioral and emotional problems when they become adolescents and adults.
Many of today’s youth problems can be attributed, directly or indirectly, to
the decline of marriage. This includes high rates of juvenile delinquency,
suicide, substance abuse, child poverty, mental illness, and emotional
instability. One important new study has found that the average
American child in recent decades reported more anxiety than child psychiatric
patients in the 1950s. Indeed, as former Senator Moynihan once observed, the
United States "may be the first society in history in which children are
distinctly worse off than adults." Much of the linkage between the decline of marriage
and the rise of problems in childhood rests with the absent father. The
evidence is now strong that fathers do matter in the lives of their
children. And, although there are many caring and responsible non-resident
fathers, the alarmingly simple fact is that men are much less likely to stay
close to their children when they are not married to their children’s mother.
Men tend to view marriage and childrearing as a single package. If they are
not married or are divorced, their interest in and sense of responsibility
toward children greatly diminish. Many studies have found that a high
percentage of all unmarried or divorced fathers lose regular contact with
their children over time. Why is marriage so important to fatherhood? Because
being a father is universally problematic for men in a way it is not for
women. Put simply, as marriage weakens, fathers stray. While mothers the
world over bear and nurture their young with an intrinsic acknowledgement of
their role, fathers are often filled with conflict and doubt. Left culturally
unregulated, men’s sexual behavior can be promiscuous, their paternity
casual, their commitment to families weak. Marriage is society’s way of
engaging the basic problem of fatherhood—how to hold the father to the
stronger mother-child bond. As a cultural institution, marriage stresses the
long-run commitment of the male, the durability of the marital relationship,
and the importance of the union for children. Our national goal should be no less than to rebuild
a marriage culture, one in which as many children as possible grow up with
their fathers and mothers providing care and nurture and stability. We should
be every bit as much concerned with our nation’s family environment as we are
with our nation’s economic and natural environments. Yet if ever there was a
serious domestic problem almost entirely ignored by our national elected
representatives, this is it. Despite the fact, for example, that many
Americans believe the current state of marriage to be one of the major
problems of our time, no high-level government body in memory has examined
the issue. Indeed, in recent years the government even has cut back on the
collection of marriage statistics. Is the goal of renewing a marriage-based society
impossible to achieve? It certainly will not be easy. Much of the needed
change must come, of course, in the cultural, moral and spiritual realms. But
there are many things that can be done at the federal level to smooth the
path. Perhaps the most important is merely to recognize—as societies in the
past have nearly always done as a part of public policy—that the benefits to
children of having married parents are so great that the institution of
marriage should be encouraged by every reasonable means possible.
Fortunately, many ways exist to strengthen and stabilize marriage, to make
marriage a more satisfying as well as more durable social relationship. And,
of course, government should seek to do no harm in this realm. It should
never institute policies, for example, that provide disincentives to
marriage, or that fail equally to support children not in a two-parent
family. Some believe that pro-marriage policies can not be
put forth without stigmatizing and penalizing those who for one reason or
another, sometimes through no fault of their own, are not married. Yet the
fact remains that the overwhelming majority of young people today wish to
marry for life, and the parents of these young people, no matter what their
marital state, also hold that goal for their offspring. There is actually an
enormous reservoir of support for a marriage-based culture. In addition to
the significant and enduring benefits for children, the evidence is clear
that having a solid, long-term marriage greatly enhances the wealth, health,
longevity, and overall happiness of adults. More than 2000 years ago the Roman statesman Cicero
noted that "marriage is the first bond of society." Surely this
observation is no less true today. © copyright National Marriage
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