Millennial marriages look quite different from those of their parents, the boomers. And, new research shows, they’re more likely to last.
Young people’s low divorce rates have caused the country’s overall rate to decline about 8 percent in the past decade, according to a recent University of Maryland study. That’s positive news, and the main reason behind it is a demographic shift: Millennials who get married are waiting until they’re older and have earned college degrees, increasing their financial stability.
Millennials’ selectivity about marriage partners and their willingness to communicate are also helping strengthen their nuptial bonds, but they can’t take all the credit. They’ve come into adulthood in an era where gender roles have broken down and marriage’s role in society has changed dramatically.
Another factor that’s driving millennials’ low divorce rates is that younger couples most at risk of splitting up — those with less education, which typically means less financial security — aren’t getting married in the first place. They’re cohabitating instead.
Struggling to pay the bills can put substantial stress on relationships, said Tai Mendenhall, an associate professor of family social science at the University of Minnesota. “One of the No. 1 predictors of marital stability is money,” he said.
Until the past few decades, marriage was a classless institution. Today, among women in their early 40s, three-fourths of those with bachelor’s degrees are married, compared with just over half of those with only a high school education. Marriage has become more exclusive, chosen increasingly by only the couples more likely to stay together.
At the same time, marriage’s cultural significance has shifted. In past generations, marriage was viewed as a pathway to adulthood, a journey to take together. Today it’s perceived as the capstone.
So, using that to reexamine a repeating theme, pre-election, steps of government aimed to lessen the stress of poverty grinding on establishment of lasting pairings, that party which stands for a helping hand and a safety net, vs witch hunting "welfare fraud" and touting a Draconian view of "rule of law" is not only the party with a better more humane way to govern, they are family friendly; while a wrong focus on the family, a narrow bigoted one, can be disruptive and stress-laden for others, without cause.
Just saying. Not naming any names. But publishing a truth, and if you feel otherwise then question your motives and your worldview. As some candidates most surely should. A strait-jacket viewpoint, learned from parents or bad counsel, can have the pattern of a questionable early marriage, a marriage dissolution without children, and with much luck and good fortune deserved or not, a second stable and lasting marriage; one for which thanksgiving and love for all humanity is due rather than narrowness and petty views of others in their struggles to live a life free of strife.
And marriage in its most inclusive sense, two adults in a lasting loving relationship be it that of Tim Walz or of Angie Craig, is a focus on the family's married good will which is favored by one party more than the other. And marriage in that more inclusive sense seems to be accepted by a majority of us as more fair and balanced a way to view things. In closing, having to say it, FOX may mouth platitudes but look at the Hegseth marriage track record and such, and see practice what you preach is a good measuring stick. And there is trump, and living forever in privileged retarded childhood, marriage after marriage.
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TOO MUCH PATRIARCHY IN OLDER DATED OUTLOOKS? One cause of marriage failure might be one spouse having an outdated, even an insulting attitude, to patriarchal values; i.e., the female being the brighter and more successful of the two, better at social skills while the male bonds with like-minded patriarchal types, perhaps ones with a biblical view of a woman duty bound to obey and subject herself to the will of her master. That sort of thing could get stale quickly and result in a short marriage with the more successful female going her own way to success. In some situations lip service to subjecting to one's husband can be seen, but what of those who focus on the family in wrong and outdated contexts with patriarchy being touted by a male father figure with a Bible and an agenda which captivates the male in the traditional female-male marriage? Particularly if married before either spouse's career, or both, have taken off to any measure.
One with a less strong personality can be sucked into error, perhaps never even having the self awareness to notice error and to instead seek a second wife to be home-bound with the children. Not with any particular failed marriage leading to a divorce in mind, of course not, since other factors could also be at play.
What is nice is the Ellison marriage lasting over the years to where the children reached adulthood, with two adult spouses each having a career. Why a marriage dissolution there is ghoulishly pursued by Glen Taylor's Strib and Alpha News is unclear, except Alpha News clearly is a Republican propaganda organ. Ellison has his opponent who gets a free pass in terms of scrutiny of his marriage record. At least, so far, from Strib and Alpha News, but Alpha News with its limited GOP tub thumping function is not the outlet from which you'd expect anything resembling a balanced outlook.
Strib? They've been statewide over years, and more is expected.