The divorce rate has decreased in the United States, yet so has the marriage rate. So, what does that mean for today\u2019s families?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Evolution of the All-American Family<\/b><\/p>\n
By Alexandra Stelzer<\/p>\n
There has been a 7.6 percent decrease in divorce and annulments in the United States from 2009 to 2011, according to the United States Census Bureau. On the other hand, there has been a 9.3 percent decrease in the number of individuals getting married. Though divorce and marriage rates have actually risen compared to that of last year\u2019s, it has seen a dramatic change over the past 12 years. The fact that both rates have decreased over the years has raised several questions.<\/p>\n
Brandes believes the decline in marriages and divorces has to do with the changes in the ways in which people are choosing to structure their household. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of unmarried young adults living together and having a family. When and if that relationship doesn\u2019t end up working out, the couple can simply choose to split up without having to go through all of the stresses of going through a divorce.\u201d This is the reason why people try living together before committing to marriage. People feel as though it is more acceptable to form a family structure without the hassle of getting a marriage license.<\/p>\n
There are many reasons why marriage and divorce rates have decreased over the years to ways in which the American family household has changed. With the legalization of gay marriages in 14 states, it is more common for same-sex couples to be living together even more so than before. Same-sex couples that get married are also adopting, or having their own children by means of in vitro fertilization. Some will choose not to have children or expand their families in any way, which could lead to the decrease in households with children. As a result, families and households have grown smaller over time, especially since living alone has become more common as the number of one-person households has increased. In turn, this has offset the dwindling number of married households with children. Furthermore, married couples are having fewer children.<\/p>\n
According to the United States Census Bureau, there has been a 3 percent increase in male heads of households since 1940. However, the United States has seen a significant increase in the number of female heads of households, with a 3.4 percent increase.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are seeing more individuals in our country with a sense of entitlement and not necessarily in the family,\u201d said Bradley University Family and Consumer Sciences professor Dr. Kendra Brandes. \u201cFamilies in the past have worked together to make things work, and the stresses of making ends meet due to this economy have changed the family structure.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Brandes, \u201cfamily is the basic unit in which two or more people are sharing emotional, social, physical and economic resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
This definition hasn\u2019t so much altered its basic definition, as much as it has in terms of the number and types of individuals who are living together. After all, the diversity in family structure has changed even more so over the last decade.<\/p>\n
In Peoria alone, 31.6 percent of the county\u2019s population lives alone, according to the United States Census Bureau, while 44 percent of people are living as married-couple families. However, with the recent decision to legalize same-sex marriages in the state of Illinois, these percentages may change. With a broader acceptance of the different types of families and their household structures, more people will hopefully be looking at that commitment between the two individuals as opposed to who those individuals have to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up with four other siblings, two of which are gay,\u201d said Morgan Welsh, a junior Educational Health Sciences major at Bradley University. \u201cMy brother and sister came out when they were teenagers, and that\u2019s obviously allowed me to be open to the idea of same-sex marriages.\u201d<\/p>\n
Welsh said growing up with a gay brother and sister didn\u2019t really faze her growing up.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy best friend is the president of the Gay-Straight alliance at Bradley University, and I think being raised with two gay siblings has allowed me to accept others whether or not they are different from me. Just because you like a certain sex doesn\u2019t change who you are,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The divorce rate has decreased in the United States, yet so has the marriage rate. So, what does that mean for today\u2019s families? Evolution of the All-American Family By Alexandra Stelzer There has been a 7.6 percent decrease in divorce and annulments in the United States from 2009 to 2011, according to the United States Census Bureau. On the other hand, there has been a 9.3 percent decrease in the number of individuals getting married. Though divorce and marriage rates have actually risen compared to that of last year\u2019s, it has seen a dramatic change over the past 12 years. The fact that both rates have decreased over the years has raised several questions. Brandes believes the decline in marriages and divorces has to do with the changes in the ways in which people are choosing to structure their household. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of unmarried young adults living together and having a family. When and if that relationship doesn\u2019t end up working out, the couple can simply choose to split up without having to go through all of the stresses of going through a divorce.\u201d This is the reason why people try living together before committing to marriage. People […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[50,51,54,52,53,34],"class_list":["post-128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-car","tag-evolvingfamilies","tag-marriagedivorce","tag-peoriail","tag-singlefamilies","tag-com425"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128\/revisions\/153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}