Posted on 08/23/2019 9:55:12 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Fewer and fewer Americans are getting divorced, with the rate falling 18 percent from 2008 to 2016.
Among American adults, there is support for divorce when couples do not get along. Women, people from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, and adults who have experienced divorce personally or among friends and family are especially likely to be accepting.
Despite this growing acceptance, the divorce rate dipped again in 2018. The decline began in 1980 or 1990, depending on the data source and experts. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the number of divorced people per 1,000 Americans fell from 4.7 in 1990 to 2.9 in 2016.
Who is driving this downward trend? Adults age 45 and younger.
Young adults are being more decisive—in not only the timing of their nuptials, but also in their choice to marry in the first place.
Many of these younger adults choose to marry after they have achieved their desired levels of education, established careers and stabilized their finances. They also want to be "bonded" with a mate based on love, friendship and common interests, not social obligation.
In the U.S., the average age at marriage has risen, from 26.1 for men and 22 for women in 1890, to 29.8 for men and 27.8 for women in 2018.
I am a human development and family studies scholar who has spent 20 years studying intimate relationships. In one study, I examined the perspectives of 52 married black men. Achieving their goals relative to education, work and finances was a significant factor in deciding when to marry their wives.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
MEANWHILE, NOT EVERYTHING IS ROSY....
Meanwhile, older adults are actually becoming more likely to get divorced.
Among those 50 years of age or older, scholars have reported a rise in divorce from 1 in 10 in 1990 to nearly 1 in 4 in 2010. This trend is called “gray divorce.”
A report commissioned by the AARP offers insight into the nature and consequences of gray divorce. Women’s economic independence may help them opt out of these unhappy marriages.
Some older adults end their unhappy unions because they have grown apart. In her dissertation and forthcoming book, marriage and family therapist Crystal Hemesath defines falling out of romantic love as a lack of sexual attraction, emotional connectedness or sense of relationship togetherness.
> people from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups
This is why Newsweek sold for a dollar
Younger Adults Drive Decline in America’s Divorce Rate
RE: That’s only because if you don’t get married you won’t get a divorce.
Or maybe, the younger ones are simply not bothering with that piece of paper and simply choosing cohabitation.
What’s the point of the paper when just about any sort of “marriage” is acceptable? (Men with men and women with women, etc. )
The trend is that younger people are not getting married.
Thus, if you are never married, it is extraordinarily difficult to get divorced.
In addition, with fewer couples getting married, those who do get married are more committed to the relationship and to the concept of marriage.
I wonder how much so-called Medicaid divorces may be driving up the stat for older Americans...
Yes I imagine Christian cultural identity has something to do with it.
Conservative Christians (and I suppose Jews and Hindus and Muslims etc I don’t know) would tend to marry rather than fornicate or cohabitate. And they’d be less likely to divorce I assume.
I know conservatives sometimes can divorce without sin so please don’t be offended, all. It’s just rare.
That was actually my point.
Marriage has a long history, but once the cultural and religious reasons go away, there really is no reason to get married. And for many people, the Religious one is the only one left. And if they are not religious, well, why bother. In a godless world, where both sexes can support themself alone, “friends with benefits” is all anyone needs.
Of course, I’m being tongue in cheek. The religious reason gets to the psychological harm done to a person who never marries but lives a life of serial monogamy or simple “fu** buddy” relationships. It seems harmless, but if it is done enough, it does tangible damage to a culture - as I believe we are seeing.
What is a medicaid divorce?
Some random musings
Two of my 20 something nieces married in the last few years to great guys and already have babies and all their friends are getting married and having babies.
Noticed way too many of males my age from HS or fraternity brothers coming out as gay in their 50’s and divorcing their wives.
My neighbor is 79 and divorcing his wife of over 50 years.
I don’t get it.
I’m a senior who has been happily divorced about 30 years and I’m still in my 60’s.
If a couple can't afford health insurance, they divorce and the non working or underemployed spouse goes on medicaid.
Viagra probably
Men are sexually active or interested forever baring health issues and most women caring much much less for sex over 50 and many even earlier
Note I said most women...there are exceptions
My ex is 58 and in great shape and dates much younger men for this reason
She runs high octane desire wise she confides and I believe her
I’ve seen women here scorn ED drugs in general for this very reason
This is an ages old issue but it’s worse now with folks living longer and men with performance drugs available
A drug to help fit women past menopause have higher sex drives would be beneficial to couples with this issue
Quaaludes worked great for this...incredible really
Sex for women is so mental dependent and methaqualone really erased girls mental roadbloacks
Fembots and puritans hated this
Anyhow let it be known I am sympathetic to the pickle older women find themselves in today as a result of Viagra etc
But rather than shut men down let’s find something for girls
Hormones help...i can personally attest to this fact
But it’s a lot more than that
Or folks can just quit having sex
Romantic love defined by sexual attraction is easier in youth, I think.
For whatever their reasons, many “choose” to not age well via bad diet and lifestyle choices, especially when the difficult life stuff happens.
The beauty of youth is a gift from our Creator, but beauty later in life comes with a price that many would rather not pay.
On the other hand, romantic love defined by emotional connectedness is probably easier later in life, after we’ve grown up a bit and grow in our capacity for it.
But, relationship togetherness just is or it isn’t.
I think it’s based upon how we each choose to think/feel about and react to the other person’s 20% in that 80/20 ratio of the other person’s good stuff/bad stuff that is supposedly part and parcel to every and all marriage relationships.
Given how people can change with life and experiences, that 20% can change radically over a marriage!
The 20% might become so minor so as to “disappear”.
Or the 20% may “grow” to become the deadly “irreconcilable differences” that make continuing in the relationship impossible for the less mature or less motivate or less interested.
Not all can or should be married. Some just don’t have the capacity for it, where as some do, but never grow enough to develop it.
A Medicaid divorce is contrived so that an ailing and medically needy spouse qualifies for Medicaid, thereby preserving the other spouse’s assets and income from being consumed by medical and care costs. A common cause is the inability to provide home care or afford private long term care for a spouse who is unable to care for themselves.
At least a bit.
Two single retirees living together qualify for more government benefits then one married couple. Sad but there you are.
“Men are sexually active or interested forever baring health issues and most women caring much much less for sex over 50 and many even earlier”
I dated around enough before marrying my wife to know there is plenty amount of even younger women who are not that interested in sex. Yeah they have sex and like it once it starts but the male has to put in extra effort to get it and those females rarely if ever initiate it.
Then there are women who absolutely love sex and initiate it as much as the male. How my wife was for most of our dating and married life then came the dreaded menopause.
Oh well.
Exactly. Moving out after shacking up doesn’t impact the divorce statistics.
bump
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