Ruth Institute Blog

By Pat Hagan

It’s a bit of a cliche that women settle down for love, and men for regular sex.

But scientists are claiming it’s true. A study shows that women agree to cohabit because they view it as a stepping stone to marriage.

Yet men move in hoping for more sex and to ‘test drive’ the relationship to see if it is worth sticking around. Read more…

An Arkansas law that allows only a married man and woman to adopt or foster children was up for debate recently before the state Supreme Court.

The measure, designated as Act 1, was approved by 57 percent of voters in November 2008.  It reads: “A minor may not be adopted or placed in a foster home if the individual seeking to adopt or to serve as a foster parent is cohabiting with a sexual partner outside of a marriage which is valid under the constitution and laws of this state. The prohibition of this section applies equally to cohabiting opposite-sex and same-sex individuals.”

The ACLU, however, challenged the law, claiming it discriminates against homosexuals — and a judge struck it down, ruling that the measure violated constitutional guarantees of due process and equal protection.  At the recent oral arguments before the Arkansas Supreme Court, Byron Babione — senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) — explained the law is about protecting kids. Read more…

by Jack Murphree, Tennessee Register

The essential purpose and reason behind both the social and sacramental institution of marriage is threatened by cohabitation, contraception, artificial reproductive technology, divorce and same sex unions, said the speakers at the Love and Life in the Divine Plan Marriage and Family Conference held at Aquinas College Feb. 25-26.

“Contraception has made our culture believe that babies are a burden rather a blessing, that every baby that’s born is a threat to the well-being of the world and to our share of the piece of the pie,” said Dr. Janet Smith, an instructor at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit, a widely-published expert on the Catholic teachings on sexuality and bioethics, and one of the conference speakers. Read more…

by Carolyn Moynihan

Britain’s happiest couples are married, but for less than five years, and childless. That’s what the Guardian newspaper headlined from a report released last week — the first results from a 49 million pound research project called Understanding Society.

This bit from the Guardian report contains my favourite factoids, however: Read more…

by Carolyn Moynihan

A recent Pew poll found that Americans are broadly tolerant of “non-traditional families” but draw the line at single motherhood. The reasons may have more to do with the social cost — and cost to children — than any moral principle.

Today, nuclear families make up barely one in five households in the US and nearly four in 10 births are to unmarried women — increasing numbers of whom are cohabiting with the child’s father. Read more…

Aquinas College and Ruth Institute plan conference, featuring Janet Smith, Jennifer Roback Morse and Bradford Wilcox, to strengthen marriage in a hostile world.

Go get your badges here. Cut and paste the code to insert a badge on your own website, blog, facebook page, etc. Get the word out about this conference regarding the four threats to marriage: contraception, divorce, cohabitation and same sex unions.

by Carolyn Moynihan

A good, lasting marriage makes the spouses happier and healthier and increases their lifespan, compared with cohabitation. On average. That’s the net finding of a review of 148 studies in seven European countries, according to an editorial in the British Medical Journal.

So don’t let anyone kid you otherwise. A recent report from a New Zealand cohort study said that cohabiting relationships made the partners just as happy as marriage if they lasted. But they do not usually last as long as marriages, and that’s a fact. Read more…

This is an oldie but goodie I wanted to resurrect.

by Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D

This article appeared in the Boundless webzine in 2001.

Research shows that cohabitation is correlated with unhappiness and domestic violence. Cohabiting couples report lower levels of satisfaction in the relationship than married couples. Women are more likely to be abused by a cohabiting boyfriend than a husband. Children are more likely to abused by their mothers’ boyfriends than by her husband, even if the boyfriend is their biological father. If a cohabiting couple ultimately marries, they have a higher propensity to divorce. Read more…

by Carolyn Moynihan

Here is something very useful: a graphic presentation of key statistics from the US National Marriage Project’s recent report showing the inroads of divorce and non-marriage on “middle Americans”. Read more…

by Elizabeth Landau – CNN.com Health Writer/Producer

by Carolyn Moynihan

We hear a lot about family breakdown but not much that throws light on its true extent, or on the causes. A new study remedies that by describing the parental relationship in terms of either “belonging” or “rejection”. Read more…

by Rebekah Hebbert

For most people large, tight families who do just about everything en masse is the stuff of legend, or reality TV shows. But as the oldest of ten children I live with it every day, this article for example was interrupted to rescue a precious stuffed bunny from the new puppy, and mediate who got to wear the princess dress. Read more…

by John Vecchione

Governor Andrew Cuomo has seen fit to invite his girlfriend of five years, the statuesque blonde Sandra Lee, into the Governor’s mansion.  Sandra Lee has a cooking show I actually like called Semi-Homemade in which she gives tips on how to entertain so it appears you made various dishes from scratch.  Andrew Cuomo also seems like a sober-minded Democrat.  Nonetheless, this spectacle is a good gauge of the decline of marriage particularly in the East. Read more…

This is a bit of a switch.

By Marianne Medlin

Denver, Colo., Nov 20, 2010 / 07:07 am (CNA).- Marriage and family experts argued against media coverage of a recent study that claims a large numbers of Americans view marriage as obsolete. Rather than endorse a negative interpretation of the figures, the experts argued that the same study shows the majority of young people today still want to get married. Read more…

by Carolyn Moynihan

The latest ammunition in the same-sex marriage wars is a New York Times report about research showing that “a majority of Americans now say their definition of family includes same-sex couples with children, as well as married gay and lesbian couples”.

At the same time, most Americans do not consider unmarried cohabiting couples, either heterosexual or same-sex, to be a family — unless they have children. Read more…

It’s a great way to keep your head clear. But does anybody care, I wonder?

by Carolyn Moynihan

It is always gratifying when research coincides with common sense and everyday experience, as in the case of a new study showing that a relationship in which sexual intimacy is delayed is more likely to endure. Read more…

A reader posted my AOL New article on her facebookpage and got this response from a friend:

I see multiple problems with her argument,
1. She does not mention divorce, which has already ‘redefined marriage.’ Divorce rates in our nation have been hovering around 50% for quite some time, and divorce can be very detrimental to children involved.
2. There are some heterosexual couples who are physically unable to bear children. As far as reproduction is concerned, they are in the same category as homosexual couples. Both of theses couples can adopt children, yet no one questions the ‘parental status’ of heterosexual parents who adopt.
3. There are many married couples who choose not to have children, so saying that the ‘essential purpose of marriage is to attach mothers and fathers to their children’ is an exaggeration that remains unsupported by empirical evidence.
4. In some cultures and ethnic groups, marriage rates are decreasing and couples choose to cohabit instead. These groups have already ‘gotten rid of marriage’ and they are not seeing an adverse effects.
I’m more inclined to agree with the comment on the article from Ken, and I’m very glad prop 8 was overruled; however, I do appreciate this woman’s attempt to provide non-religious argument against gay marriage…

I had a limit of 650 words for that column, so obviously I cannot deal with every possible objection. So let me briefly amplify my remarks, mostly to say that I have dealt with many of these issues multiple times.
1. On divorce. I write about divorce regularly. In fact, divorce was one of the first issues that got me into the study of marriage and family. I have a couple of recent podcasts, here and here. My books, Love and Economics, and Smart Sex, both deal with the whole range of marital breakdowns, without ever once refering to same sex marriage. Read more…

Ruth institute Advisory Board member Pat Fagan edits the Mapping America series for Family Research Council. In this month’s edition, he asks, “What increases the likelihood of a woman having two or more cohabitations in her lifetime?” Looking at two or more cohabitations is significant because this weeds out the couples who move in together right before getting married, and then staying married. All the research suggests that “serial cohabitation” is more risky than pre-marital cohabitation, and both of course, are more risky than not cohabiting at all. Read more…

Looks like further evidence of the results of the current trends to deconstruct marriage. 

by Carolyn Moynihan

Further to an earlier post on delayed adulthood, USA Today recently ran a report headed “Dating for a decade?” on how young adults put off the commitment of marriage for years, even though they have “paired off” and typically live together. Nobody seems very upset about it. Read more…