In her Op-Ed for NBC News, CCF Director of Research and Public Education Stephanie Coontz writes about the origins of gendered wedding traditions and possible implications for marital satisfaction. Coontz writes, “couples looking for happiness in the years after their wedding day might consider updating old ceremonies, or crafting new ones, that reinforce their commitment to […]
Topics of Expertise: History & Trends on Gender, Marriage & Family Life
A Reversal in Predictors of Sexual Frequency and Satisfaction in Marriage A briefing paper prepared for the Council on Contemporary Families by Sharon Sassler, Professor, Department of Policy Analysis & Management, Cornell University June 20, 2016 In the 1940s and 1950s, the consensus of the emerging profession of marital counseling was that marital happiness and […]
Topics of Expertise: Division of Labor in Families
CCF Research Director Stephanie Coontz is cited in the SCOTUS decision legalizing same-sex marriage, June 26, 2015. Check out this related story in the Seattle Times.
Topics of Expertise: History & Trends on Gender, Marriage & Family Life / Marriage & Divorce
For Immediate Release Contact: Virginia Rutter / Framingham State University Sociology vrutter@gmail.com / 206 375 4139 CCF PRESS ADVISORY: Attention Cohabitors: Having a baby before you marry no longer raises your risk of divorce September 16, Austin, TX— Today the majority of weddings take place between couples who already live together. And recent research shows […]
Topics of Expertise: Cohabitation, Committed Relationships & MarriageWhat Happens When Couples Marry after the First Baby? A briefing paper prepared for the Council on Contemporary Families by Kelly Musick, Cornell University and Katherine Michelmore, University of Michigan September 16, 2015 One of the consistent findings of sociological research in recent decades has been that couples who had a child before getting […]
Topics of Expertise: Cohabitation, Committed Relationships & Marriage / Couples Conflict, Separation & Divorce
Why are divorce rates higher in religiously conservative “red” states and lower in less religiously conservative “blue” states? After all, most conservatives frown upon divorce, and religious commitment is believed to strengthen marriage, not erode it. Even so, religiously conservative states Alabama and Arkansas have the second and third highest divorce rates in the U.S., at 13 per 1000 people per year while New Jersey and Massachusetts, more liberal states, are two of the lowest at 6 and 7 per 1000 people per year.
Topics of Expertise: Couples Conflict, Separation & Divorce / Economic Inequality
This month marks the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s declaration of an “unconditional war on poverty.” Yet this month also marks over a quarter century since President Ronald Reagan’s 1988 announcement that the war on poverty was over, and that poverty had won. Many politicians blame the resurgence of poverty on the spread of unwed motherhood and conclude that promoting marriage among low-income individuals would do more to reduce poverty than government investments. In this report, Ohio State University sociologist Kristi Williams examines how efforts to get impoverished single mothers to marry are unlikely to make much of a dent in poverty rates and may even have some harmful outcomes for mothers and children alike.
Topics of Expertise: Child Welfare / Economic Inequality / TANF & Public AssistanceThis month marks the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s declaration of an “unconditional war on poverty.” Yet this month also marks over a quarter century since President Ronald Reagan’s 1988 announcement that the war on poverty was over, and that poverty had won. To mark the anniversaries of these very different points in the government’s role in poverty reduction, two researchers from the Council on Contemporary Families assess where we have come from and where we stand today.
Topics of Expertise: Child Welfare / Economic Inequality / Marriage & Divorce / TANF & Public Assistance
The marriage prospects of educated women have been hotly debated in the media in recent weeks. Are highly educated women more likely to wind up single than their less-educated counterparts? Would they do better to settle for a “good enough” man before they miss their chance altogether? Or are educated women now MORE likely to marry then their less-educated counterparts? But if so, do higher expectations make them more discontented with marriage?
Topics of Expertise: Gender & Sexuality
Research on marriage trends suggests a U- shaped pattern of marital stability: marriages contracted in the early to mid twenties had lower divorce rates than those taking place before or after those ages. Do the patterns of the 1960s hold today? If they do, the present trend towards increasingly older ages at entry into marriage would be expected to be accompanied by higher levels of marital instability. This study examines this question, with particular focus on the case of women.
Topics of Expertise: Couples Conflict, Separation & Divorce
In the mid-20th century, marital counselors often advised couples that parenthood would increase their marital satisfaction and adjustment, and polls showed that most Americans believed that true marital happiness depended on having a child. But over the past three decades, a series of studies, including two by Philip and Carolyn Cowan and another 25 studies in 10 industrialized countries, have discovered the opposite. On average, satisfaction with marriage for men and women goes down after the birth of a first child and continues to fall over the next 15 years.
Topics of Expertise: Child Welfare
Let’s face it: The road to happily-ever-after is pitted with potholes. Children, finances, and in-laws can all put stress on a marriage. But what about who cleans the floor? This matters, too. A survey released this week by the Pew Research Center shows that most Americans now regard sharing household chores as more vital to a good marriage than such traditional measures of marital success as having children.
Topics of Expertise: Division of Labor in Families
A new report, “The Taxpayer Costs of Divorce and Unwed Childbearing: First-Ever Estimates for the Nation and all 50 States”, raises the question of how much divorce costs taxpayers. This is an intriguing question, but unfortunately this report falls short on providing the answer. In the worst traditions of “advocacy science” the authors pick […]
Topics of Expertise: Couples Conflict, Separation & Divorce / Economic Inequality / Fertility,Reproduction & Sexual Health / Gender & Sexuality / Marriage & Divorce / TANF & Public Assistance
For the past 15 years, political pundits have been telling us a dark fairy tale about American teens, blaming who have babies out of wedlock. This assumption guided the welfare reform act of 1996, which promised to write America a happy ending by getting teens to stop having babies, get married, and thus end poverty. But a new longitudinal study by Frank Furstenberg shows that fairy tales have no place in the realm of policy-making. His data reveal that teen childbearing is NOT the reason that many Americans have been trapped in poverty over the past three decades.
Topics of Expertise: Child Welfare / TANF & Public Assistance
Why do so many low-income couples postpone marriage but fail to postpone childbearing? Which couples eventually do marry? Why do the rest of the couples break up? How would knowing the answers to these questions affect public policy? A new briefing report by the Council on Contemporary Families offers an advance look at the […]
Topics of Expertise: Child Welfare / Cohabitation, Committed Relationships & Marriage / Couples Conflict, Separation & Divorce / Transition - Couples to Parenting
