Social Causes of the Decline in Marriage - Essay Example

"Social Causes of the Decline in marriage" Social Causes of the Decline in Marriage APA format Research Academia There has been falling trends in the marriage among the Africans Americans. Cohabitation is preferred over marriage to be the center of family. This institution has been growing fast with the backing of traditional system and culture among this community since past to live without legal support of marriage. Economic feasibility, social degradation, health condition, criminalization poor education, unemployment or under employment are some of the compelling causes that promote cohabitation and indifference towards marriage. The Social Causes of the decline in marriage. Introduction Marriage is the covenant relationship that is conducive for human happiness, well being, and satisfaction. It is the optimal context for raising children and for the sustenance of society. There is undermining of this marriage culture in some societies gradually. Marriage is simply not respected as it once was. The expectation from marriage is eroded. The cult of personal autonomy and the rise of modern world and the views have only accelerated this process of ignoring marriages. Still, the decline of marriage as an institution is not uniform across the culture. Statistics show that marriage is losing ground among African Americans more quickly than within the society at large. The American family system has gone through a lot of changes in the past centuries-marriage and divorce rates, cohabitation, childbearing, sexual behavior, and women working outside the home (Cherlin, 2005). Though marriage generally remains the living arrangement for raising children, there are increasing number of poor and minority children growing up in single-parent families and experiencing family instability. Among the American racial groups since the 1960s, the decline of marriage as a social institution has been more evident with African Americans. According to Jones (2006), the African Americans have the lowest marriage rate among all racial groups in the United States. In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stated that more than 70 percent of all the black families in the United States are headed by married couples (Kinnon, 2003). But in 2002, that number was 48 percent. Moreover, there is an alarming increase in number of black women and men who have never been wedded. The 2001 U. S. Census reveals that 43.3 percent of black men and 41.9 percent of black women in America in comparison to 27.4 percent white men and 20.7 percent white women had never been married (Jones, 2006; Mohler, 2006). There is a much worse case that concludes that African American women are the least likely in the society to marry and they are increasing in number. From 62 percent of black women who are married, the number declined to 31 percent in the period between 1950 and 2002. Jones (2006) states that the overall marriage rate in the United States, weakened by 17 percent, while for blacks, it declined by 34 percent. Section A: Literature Review The decline of marriage by African Americans has been questioned by a lot of researchers through the years. There is a sudden urge to know the reasons of the shift in African American customs, in the community, in the people's consciousness that has made marriage seem unnecessary or unattainable (Jones, 2006). . Today 63% of the families headed by African Americans are by single parent. The direct impact of this reversal in attitude towards marriage is that there have been dramatic demographic changes in the number of Black children being reared by a single parent over the last decade. Arguments and discussions about the "pathologies" of Black families have intensified. New questions are raised regarding the impact of having Black children reared by their mothers without their fathers along with this demographic shift. Much of the research on single-parent families has tended to focus on male children and adolescents. Female Headed Black Families Noted sociologist E. F. Frazier claimed that a large proportion of Black households were female-centered due to out-of-wedlock births which led to family disorganization and transmission of disorganized family norms from one generation to the next (Frazier, 1939). Frazier's theories, supported by other political and social views of the time, led to the wide-spread notion that Black families were both female-headed and dysfunctional. According to Moynihan female headed families among African Americans caused boys in these families to grow up lacking adequate role model for healthy adult masculinity. He asserts that single Black women are unskilled parents and this noticeably affects boys. Black female headed families are a deviant cultural norm and, therefore, transmit deviancy to children that influences aspirations and social roles negatively (Moynihan 1965). Parental configuration of the contemporary family Undergoing change Parental configuration of the contemporary family has undergone major changes with black minority losing two parent families from 82% to 69%- a decline of 35% during the past quarter century. There is 16 point decline from 1975 to 1998 compared to 79% for white children (Hernandez, 2000). More than 90 percentages of children in black community will live in families headed by a female at some point in their lives as predicted by Hill. (Hill, 1999). The family characteristic of African American families and disproportionate discrimination to the children from these families in all many walks of life make Black students perform poorly when compared to European- and some Asian-American youth. Some evidence suggests that this is due to family and cultural factors and to experiences of racism (Ogbu,1992; Taylor, Hinton, & Wilson, 1995). The high proportion of African Americans children born to single mothers has made the major population of children at risk for adverse outcomes and that is increasing day by day. Single mothers may tend to perceive no or fewer gains from marriage than the losses they would incur but the impact on their children might be bigger to be compensated in the long run. There is usually seen increasing incidence of deviant behaviors such as substance abuse, early sexual debut, sexual promiscuity, teen pregnancy, truancy or drop outs from schools among male children of single mothers. This can be stopped or minimized through promoting marriages by single mothers and by providing a sounder economic base to the family.(Cherlin, 99). Single mothers particularly those from low income groups, have higher levels of anxiety and stress than married mothers, and have lesser pecuniary resources to take care of their children. (Jackson 2000) Bleak Future of the Married Life Most of single mothers tend to avoid marriage because they don't foresee improvements in their lives after marriage. This fact is supported by many sociologists. Stier and Tienda (1997 found that the economic problems of child bearing by non- martial mothers persist regardless of subsequent settlement by marriage. He therefore doubted about counseling non-martial mothers about marriage. In this context these mothers also hold opinion that marriage would be beneficial only when the prospective spouses earn sufficient income, which should not be lesser that the 60% above the national minimum wage. (Kathryn Edin 2000) Economic feasibility is very important reason for women to decline marriages. Low employment and unemployment among Africans Americans for decades is the main cause (Tucker & Mitchell Kernan). Increasing economic marginality among the male members made the less desirable husbands for women. They find themselves constrained in their ability to perform the provider role in the marriage. (Faye Z. Belgrave, Kevin W. Allison pp 140) Loss of Woman Leadership Non-martial mothers worry about the loss of leadership over the family post marriage but hope to gain the respectability of the married family they lost in the past. Apart from this theoretical arguments and points of conversation the fact remains that African American women are less likely than either Hispanic women or Anglo women to marry and also less likely to remain married if at all they marry. (Murry,1997). Childbearing among never married mothers was more prevalent for African American mothers than divorcing after marriage followed by Anglo mothers. The rate of marriage among the African American women has decrease but the rate of child bearing has increased. (Franklin et al., 1995) Another important reason for women to decline marriage is the Low Sex Ratio among African -American population. According to the sociologist Robert Staple's estimate there is only about one marriageable black man for every two black women. They have less chance of being married and when they do marry the stability and trust within the marriage tends to decline. Low sex ratio weakens the position of women in the society for bargaining in the marriage market. They cannot exploit the marriage to be permanent source of economic support for her and her children. Men are underemployed and away from family. They are not suitable for marriage because of their social status, low income, unstable job, imprisonment, institutionalization, and homosexuality. In these circumstances both men and women prefer not to marry and they often decline from the bondage of marriage. (Nigel Barber, 'Why Parents Matter' pp 176) "Most single black women over the age of 30 whom I know would not mind getting married, but acknowledge that the kind of man and the quality of marriage they would like to have may not be likely, and they are not desperate enough to simply accept any situation just to have a man," she explains". "What has shifted in African American customs, in our community, in our consciousness, which has made marriage seem unnecessary or unattainable" (Joy Jones) 'Marriage Is for White People' 2006, March 26. Cohabitation Cohabitation may be alternative arrangement to marriage as per FayeZ. Co-habitation is advance step between courtship and marriage. Tanfer (1987) made a research to find the cohabitation as the reason for the decline in marriage. His finding was that cohabitation was not preferred by African American women that time than by the white women. He was of the view that cohabitation is not the reason for decline in marriages. There is limitation of selecting marriage partners caused by education profile of African American males. They are less educated than the women class. A large number of then are involved in criminal justice system, their life expectation is low. African Americans live longer. Thus they will have to marry down or marry one of another race or postpone or decline marriage. . ( Faye Z. Belgrave, Kevin W. Allison pp 142) Studies on cohabitation in African American shows the recent dramatic transformation in marriage and child bearing have taken place during 1960 and after (Ellwood & Crane 1990, Heater & Jacobson 1994) Public aid, sex ratio, wages and other demographic factors have been the focal points of study on the subject.( Marriage and Child Wellbeing) Pattern of marriage The recent trend noticed is that there are changes in the pattern of marriage. The age of marriage has prominently went higher from 1950 when it was very low at about twenty three for men and twenty for women to twenty for men and twenty six for women that was prevailing in 1890s.Women are marrying now a days quite later. The difference in the attitude towards late marriage is driven by the acceptation of cohabitation that has caught the fancy of young adults today. In 19th century when there was late marriage young women particularly lived at home before marriage or lived in rented house if required. This practice was followed by both young men and women even if they were courting each other. The majority of them refrained from establishing sexual relationship until married. Today's trend is just opposite. Young adults live outside their homes in hostels or rented accommodations and freely established contacts with the counterparts. The majority of unmarried young adults have enjoyed sexual intercourse. Most women who married during the 1990s first had intercourse five years or more before marrying. About half of young adults live with a partner before they are married... Cohabitation is common today than it was at any time in the early- or mid-twentieth century. For some people, it is a way to marriage or a trial marriage. For many cohabiting relationships may be a long-term substitute for marriage. As a survey indicates thirty-nine percent of cohabiters in 1995 lived with children of one of the partners. About half of Cohabiting relationships end through marriage or a breakup, within a year. The new culture of co-habitation that has subdued support of the society at large has caused drop in common marriages. The couples have birth of babies also without marriage followed by strife. This gives a bad experience about a partnership and the taste of marriages gets sour resulting in a total forgo for the marriage in the future. Lesbian &Gay marriage One of the social causes for declining from marriage is lesbian and gay men. There is no option for them to marry. They live together freely. After the enactment of law in 2004 they can now marry each other. Why these characters are hurdle for marriage is the sexual gratification they can have in their own way. In survey made in 1992 44% of women and 28% of men who had homosexual relationship lived together as co-habitant. In 2000, 600,000 households were maintained by same-sex partners. Section B: Theory Review: Many theories have been propounded by sociologists to explain the basic reason for declining of marriages by African American youths. Social disorganization as a principal theory very much relates to the problems of decline in marriage among African Americans. Social disorganization arises when there is decrease in the influence of the existing social rules of behavior upon individual members. In this type of situation individuation and lack of cohesion marks the society. This will automatically and inevitably create social problems as it affects family and children. At the time the society undergoes disorganization there comes a state of disequilibrium, lack of consensus and social solidarity in the society.(Emile Durkein). When the functioning of coordination that constitutes the social order is destroyed social disorganization is the result. When the harmonious relationship between various groups, .parts of culture is disturbed there is breakdown in the society.( Ogburn and Nimkoff}. There is decay in social structure. Habits and cultural norms are distorted. There is interchangeability between social structure and social organization. Social disorganization carries with it social problems. Problems arise because the present society does not accept the new behavior and that may amount to threatening of the present system and culture enshrined. According to Elliot and Merril when there is breakdown in the society of rules and equilibrium of forces there is decay in the social structure that makes the existing habits and norms of control non-functional. There is no coordination and control of individual actions and responses. Social disorganization impedes and destroys the social order and functioning of the pattern of coordination. There is serious maladjustment between the various elements in the total cultural configuration. This endangers the various elements in the total cultural configuration and the survival of the group and interferes with the satisfaction of the fundamental desires of its members. Social cohesion is destroyed. As society and social organization is never static it goes on changing with conscious and unconscious attitudes, crystallized and un crystallized ideas and institutions thereby promoting complex interrelationship and existence. Social organization refers to the way other people relate themselves. When people act contrary to the ideals laid down by society and society is not progressing towards particular goals set by it causes disorganization. These ideals may be any norm and day to day activities or institutional behavior including marriage.( Elliott and Merril) . Social disorganization is the connotation of social change. Social problems and disorganization are closely related. The change may be right or wrong. Good or bad. In the dynamic society new behavior pattern often emerges. When a new behavior pattern loses the group support social disorganization is inevitable. When this is accepted by the society disorganization ends and the new behavior is incorporated into the social change. In case of non-acceptance this behavior becomes a threat to society. Let us study the changes in socio-economic perspective of the life of African Americans that threatened the institution of marriage. We have already noted that there was prevailing trend in the tradition of the earlier society to allow single parent family because of various compulsions of slavery and economic marginality. Women in the community were forced to live and lead the family alone. The trend continued with more aggressiveness in the modern society. The problems in the society persisted and got accentuated with time. When the family disintegrated with parents fallen apart the center of coordination got lost or distorted. Youths find themselves free to act irresponsibly by ignoring rules and norms of a civilized society. The result was the growing incarceration among male youth particularly. Rising incarceration of Black men and the sex ratio imbalance induced and shaped young Black women's behavior during their late teens and early twenties. There are data from the BJS and the CPS to match incarceration rates showing that Black male incarceration lowers the odds of non-marital teenage fertility and increases single Black women's school attainment and early employment. There is consistent evidence that high Black male incarceration rates decrease the likelihood of getting married for young Black women. This further leads youth males towards incarceration a. (Stephane Mechoulan, 2006) There is importance of fatherhood in the lives of children especially boys. Marriage and families boost the effects of fatherhood in protecting youth from juvenile delinquency and abuse. But this family norm of parenthood is breaking down because of disorganization in the society. (Kei M. Nomaguchi) Bio- psychological study of the social organization is another approach. This studies the biology and psychology together. The basic approach holds that there is decay of every society when there is intermixing of racial cultures. There are races of different capacities and biological characteristics of the two races and individual of two races. This difference is responsible to the social disorganization through discrepancies in the biological make- up passed through generation to generation. Another approach to the study of social organization is geographical factors such climate, land, water, rainfall that set the character make-up of persons. These forms of social disorganization exhibit in the form social behavior and actions of people in the society in term of crime, insanity, illiteracy, divorce, suicide, cultural retardation and so on.Culture of the place sets the pattern of social organization or institutional functioning of malfunctioning and therefore is an important approach to social disorganization. Cultural lag is difference between the material and non-material aspect of culture (Ogburn) The rate of changes in both the spectrum determines the lag. According to this theory the social disorganization is the result of this lag only. . The variant behavior of individuals in the society determines the level of personal or social disorganization and social change. This is how the social disorganization is formed in a simple organization. In complex society the concept is different. When there are wider varieties of response patterns there develops complex situation and social disorganization. For example some innovations may have ready acceptance because that may have been brought from outside the institutional pattern. There are many ideas beliefs, which meet resistance and never accepted or accepted after lots of heat. If there is organized resistance to innovations it tends to result in marked social disorganization. (Approaches to the study of Social Disorganization) Source: Kei M. Nomaguchi, "Are There Race and Gender Differences in the Effect of Marital Dissolution on Depression" Race, Gender & Class 12.1 [2005]: 11-30.) The Impact of Black Male Incarceration on Black Females' Fertility, Schooling, and Employment in the U.S., 1979-2000 University of Toronto - Department of Economics Stphane Mechoulan C. Final paper Institution of slavery and the age old tradition influenced family pattern of African Americans in which marriage was not legal. The extended marriage had more influence and power compared to the influence and power of the married couples. This kind of social system and culture have been influencing them even today and the young men and women prefer to refrain from or decline marriage. People's consciousness made marriage seem unnecessary or unattainable. 'Non-marriage ethos' emerged among a significant minority of Black women and spread over the course of the twentieth century. African American mothers single and poor in particular may tend to perceive that there are fewer gains to marriage than there are losses to remaining single. This led to the indifferent attitude toward marriage and getting non-martial connection freely. Women have the experience of child bearing at young age and thereby fulfill their desire for young babies. After this experience if they have quarrels with the partners they tend to become inert about marriage as such. This fundamental change is the total society and Africans -Americans are perhaps more affected because their culture and tradition support them. In case of marriage pattern in the society of African Americans there continued to be the cultural lag between the men and women group in terms of education, career, independence, status that resulted in the present disorganization. There is cultural conflict between two groups and the disorganization of the modern family is the result of continued failure to develop substitutes for two classes of family members such as old members and those on the active panel. This cultural lag sometimes leads into conflict between the culture of the two different age groups -old and the new. When we discuss these theoretical faces of social disorganization with a view to the change in marital attitude of Africans Americans and their sociological frame of reference we could get clear perspective about the growing attitude toward marriage that is 'indifference' African American women felt as though their control over household decisions would be negatively impacted by marriage, though the level of respectability would increase with marriage Lower social status, low income, unstable job, imprisonment, institutionalization, and homosexuality make African American males inferior to have successful martial relationship. Women would accept Marriage only if beneficial and if their spouses had stable jobs and earning at least 60% above the minimum wage. Increasing economic marginality among the male members made the less desirable husbands for women. They find themselves constrained in their ability to perform the provider role in the marriage. There is limitation of selecting marriage partners caused by education profile of African American males. They are less educated than the women class, they live shorter than women, and they are weaker to perform. They prove to be weaker partner in all respect. In this circumstances African American women prefer cohabitation that provide her the opportunity to enjoy sex life without marriage, bear children, break if they like, provide a unified but strong leadership to her children. The basic theory of social disorganization can be applied here. Social marriage was the accepted norm among the Africans Americans but the circumstances of slavery, economic marginality, ill education, ill health and lack of opportunities made the males and females separate and indifferent about marriage and strong family. The traditional system of acceptance of men and women living without marriage got the upper hand. There was less resistance from the society on this free life of cohabitation. The economically stronger position of women in the society further put them on enviable position of independence, and leadership. The social system had easy transformation from formal marriage to informal cohabitation. Even marriages among lesbians have been legalized. Whether this pattern of social system will be beneficial for the family as a whole or not is a debatable issue but as far as the young men and women are concerned they feel happy to adopt it as way of life. Society has to wait and watch to grant full acceptance one day. The social scientist Sara Mc Lanahan says that greater opportunities for women in the labor market are sign of a social change. This along with advent of effective birth control has encouraged women to pay attention towards education and careers more. They tend to delay or decline marriage or child bearing. Among the less educated women child bearing outside of marriage is more common. African American world today has lost sight of normal marriage and they are transformed by cohabitation and out-of-wedlock births, divorce and remarriage. According to Joy Jones "Sex, love and child bearing have become a la carte choice rather than a package deal that comes with marriage" She argues that spread of sexually transmitted disease and the decline of stable jobs among Africans Americans men folk made them vulnerable for marriages and women fear linking their fate with such men by marriage. Marriage becomes a risky business for them. She also argues that African American women have different expectations of marriage than African American men. At the age of twenties and thirties men prefer to enjoy life but women want to marry. But since women realize that good marriage is not possible to be sustainable they decline marriage and prefer having babies only or improving their job status and careers. Thus marriage does not look like attractive proposition because they feel that they have to make life on their own and men would not be of much help to them as partner. African American women hate businesslike marriages. A woman says "If it weren't for the intangibles, the allure of the lovey-dovey stuff, I wouldn't have gotten married," They want to share the benefits of marriage and they are not in a position of demanding from the husband. The absence of character and less of caring reduces the marriage to a matter of cost -benefit analysis only. Bibliography 1. By Faye Z. Belgrave, Kevin W. Allison African American Psychology) 2. Booth, Ann C. Crouter "Just Living Together' (pp41) 3. Barber, Nigel 'Why Parents Matter' (pp 176) 4. Kausler Donald H., Krup Jill 'An Aging in the Twenty-first Centur'y, pp259 5. Approaches to the study of Social Disorganization. www.sociologyguide.com/social-pathology/sociol-disorganization-study.php 6. .Pathology: Race, Work, and Family in the Lives of Africa 7.FULL JOURNAL ISSUE: Marriage and Child Wellbeing ARTICLE: American Marriage in the Early Twenty-First Century he Future of Children: A Collaboration of The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and The Brookings Institution 8. www.albermother.com The Decline of Marriage among African Americans Visited on 18th Nov.08 9. Hill, Shirley A, 'Marriage among African American women: a gender perspective' Publication: Journal of Comparative Family Studies, Publication Date: 22-JUN-06 10 Jones Joy 'Marriage Is for White People' 2006, March 26. www.washingtonpoat.com 10. Sociology 371 Professor Ross L. Matsueda Criminology Fall Quarter 2004 11. www.soc.washington.edu/users/matsueda/THEORYAP2.pdf 12. Bornstein, Marc H Social Conditions and Applied Parenting 12. Zuberi, T 'African American Men, Inequality and Family Structure: A Research ... www.ncoff.gse.upenn.edu/wrkppr/zuberipaper.pdf - 19 Nov Read More