Changing Attitudes Toward Marriage and Single Life

Attitudes about the primacy of marriage as a way of life have changed markedly over the past two decades. The legitimacy of singleness as a life-style is increasingly recognized by young people and their parents; most Americans no longer regard getting married as necessarily better than remaining single and do not disapprove of those who eschew marriage. Although most young people interviewed in the 1980 Study of American Families say that they would be bothered at least a little by failure to marry, relatively few say they would be greatly bothered by that outcome. It is somewhat surprising that the mothers of these young people also report fairly evenhanded attitudes regarding marriage for their children, suggesting that the younger generation will probably not experience much parental pressure to marry. Although the imperative to marry has weakened and the perceived advantages of marriage as compared to single life have declined, marriage continues to be valued by the majority of young Americans as shown in several studies of attitudes toward marriage. More than 90 percent expect to marry and there has been almost no decline in that proportion since 1960. What is more, despite the high levels of divorce, most young people say that they expect their marriages to be lasting. What has changed about marriage plans has been the rising age at which young people, especially young women, expect to marry--an expectation reflected in the increasing age at which Americans are actually marrying. There also seems to be a widespread desire not to let marriage interfere with education and to obtain some work experience before marriage. Marriage continues to be more important to young women than young men, despite recent trends toward more egalitarian sex roles. There is some evidence that experience with divorce increases negative attitudes about marriage and favorable ones about singleness as a way of life.