During the past century the U.S. family system has seen vast changes--in marriage and divorce rates, cohabitation, childbearing, sexual behavior, and women's work outside the home. Andrew Cherlin reviews these historic changes, noting that marriage remains the most common living arrangement for raising children, but that children, especially poor and minority children, are increasingly likely t...

Historically, marriage has always been at the center of a tension between religious and secular systems, which relationships tend towards influence and cooperation rather than exclusiion and separation. Religious law has given an input to the process of emphasizing the freedom of selfdetermination of indiividuals in marriage matters and promoted a woman’s recognition of an equal position. Marri...

The debate over whether same-sex couples should be allowed to enter into civil marriages continues in the United States. Forty-nine adolescents and emerging adults (ages 14 – 29) with lesbian, gay, and bisexual parents were interviewed for the current exploratory study, which examined how individuals perceived themselves and their families as being affected by marriage (in)equality, as well as ...

This study contributes to research on changing gender ideologies in marriage by focusing on a unique group of marriage innovators. We compare and contrast newlywed couples who chose covenant marriage, a new legal option in Louisiana primarily attractive to those of evangelical faiths, with couples who chose standard marriage. With quantitative and qualitative data from the Marriage Matters proj...

A rapid rise in women’s education levels, an increase in the age at marriage and an increase in the age at which they have their Þrst child are key features of demographic transition in any country. Education is considered to be an essential component in this process because increases in educational attainment are likely to signiÞcantly affect both age at marriage and the duration between marri...