In his New York Times opinion piece, Americans Put Too Much Weight in Romantic Love, CCF Board member Josh Colemen comments on the nation’s obsession with romantic relationships – reflecting on examples from the Clinton presidency and referencing fellow CCF-er Barbara Risman along the way.
Topics of Expertise: Couples Conflict, Separation & Divorce / Gender & Sexuality
CCF Director Jennifer Glass and Board member Stephanie Coontz join CCF members Ariel Kuperberg and Constance Ahrons in commenting on divorce for Hopes & Fears’s Is Divorce Really That Bad? .
Topics of Expertise: Couples Conflict, Separation & Divorce
What 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
THE TRICKY BUSINESS OF SORTING OUT SEXUAL ASSAULT: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE CCF SYMPOSIUM ON INTIMATE VIOLENCE by Stephanie Coontz , Director of Research and Public Education, Council on Contemporary Families, and Faculty Member in History, The Evergreen State College; coontzs@msn.com April 20, 2015 Violent crime has been falling Many people do not realize that violent […]
Topics of Expertise: Couples Conflict, Separation & Divorce / Gender & Sexuality / Sexual Abuse & Misconduct
American families are diversifying in ways that are more complicated than ever, creating distinct patterns in different parts of the country and subgroups of the population. That’s why policy-makers and community leaders need detailed, locally-specific census data about family formation, marriage trends, divorce, and widowhood. This information is essential in order to accurately assess everything from population growth patterns to the special educational and social needs of different neighborhoods. Yet the Census Bureau has announced plans to cut from the American Community Survey several questions that provide such crucial information to researchers, planners, journalists, and the general public.
Topics of Expertise: Couples Conflict, Separation & Divorce
October 12 marks the 4th anniversary the United States becoming a “no-fault nation.” On that date in 2010, New York, the last holdout, finally joined the 49 other states in eliminating the need for divorcing couples to state that the dissolution of their marriage was the “fault” of one or the other. Today, every state offers the possibility of a no-fault divorce.
Three years later, the co-chair of The Coalition for Divorce Reform claims that “no-fault divorce has been a disaster,” leading to record numbers of divorces and plummeting rates of marriage.
Figuring out divorce and marriage trends is further complicated by the recent foreclosure crisis and the ensuing deep recession. The Council on Contemporary Families asked five researchers to explore recent trends in divorce and marriage for the CCF Symposium on New Inequalities.
Contrary to popular opinion, growing instability in American families, reflected not just in divorce rates but falling rates of marriage and high rates of unwed motherhood, is not caused by people abandoning traditional concerns for children’s well-being. It is a class issue caused by the growing gap between the job options, resources, economic stability, and personal safety nets available to college-educated Americans and less-educated workers. The authors explain.
Topics of Expertise: Couples Conflict, Separation & Divorce / Economic Inequality
In contrast to the seeming stabilization of divorce rates for the general population over the past two decades, the gray divorce rate has doubled: Married individuals aged 50 and older, including the college-educated, are twice as likely to experience a divorce today as they were in 1990. For married individuals aged 65 and older, the risk of divorce has more than doubled since 1990. Researchers explain why.
Topics of Expertise: Aging / Couples Conflict, Separation & Divorce
It is quite likely that the economic crisis both caused some divorces and prevented some divorces. However, the balance of the evidence suggests it prevented more than it caused. I would not read this as good news for marriage and families, however, because there may be negative consequences for people who want to part but cannot divorce because of economic constraints. The enforced wait could simply prolong or exacerbate marital stress and family conflict, rather than saving or restoring a happy marriage.
Topics of Expertise: Couples Conflict, Separation & Divorce
In 1964 the provisions outlawing discrimination on the basis of religion were less controversial than those against discrimination on the basis of race and sex, even though blatant bigotry and outright violence against Catholics and Jews had been pervasive in American history right up through World War II. Prejudices had begun to ease by the early 1960s, but the Civil Rights Act remains an important safeguard for religious (and non-religious) minorities, according to Jerry Z. Park, Joshua Tom and Brita Andercheck, of Baylor University.
Topics of Expertise: Couples Conflict, Separation & Divorce / Race, Ethnicity & Culture
Willa Cather Professor & Department Chair of the Communication Studies Department, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Curators' Professor Emerita of Human Development and Family Studies, University of Missouri
Associate Professor of History at the University of Delaware
Professor of Psychology, University of Virginia
Professor of Sociology and Research Associate in the Population Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania
PhD Professor and Co-Chair of the College of Environmental Science, University of Missouri
Assistant Professor of Gender Studies and Assistant Research Scientist at The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, Indiana University
Director of Clinical Training, Marriage and Family Therapy
Associate Professor of Sociology, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Sociologist & Co-Director of the Gender, Sexuality & Women's Studies Program, University of Pennsylvania
Association of Family and Conciliation Courts & ISPCAN
Associate Professor in Communication Studies, Northern Kentucky University
Assistant Professor, Kansas State University
Professor of Adolescent Psychology, Wake Forest University
Professor of Sociology with the Maryland Population Research Center and Director of the Maryland Time Use Lab
Professor of Sociology & Research Professor, Population Studies Center, Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Boston University Medical School; Center for Multicultural Training in Psychology, Boston Medical Center; American Family Therapy Academy; Boston Center for Culturally Affirming Practices
Professor of Family & Consumer Studies and Adjunct Professor of Sociology, University of Utah
