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The Impact of the Recession on U.S. Marriages

The Impact of the Recession on U.S. Marriages
In a recently released report by The National Marriage Project, 2009 State of Our Unions: Marriage and Money, the authors examine the effects of the “Great Recession” on the financial and emotional lives of married couples. 
The 2009 State of Our Unions specifically attempts to answer the following questions:
  1. How is the “Great Recession” affecting the institution of marriage, as measured by changes in marriage and divorce rates in the United States?
  2. How do family finances, specifically credit card debt and family assets, shape the quality and stability of married life in America?
  3. What can be learned during this stressful time about the division of labor (employment) for husbands and wives?
  4. Is the “Great Recession” likely to foster improved relationships of equality between husbands and wives?
The study is divided into two sections. The first section examines the challenges and opportunities the “Great Recession” creates for marriages. For example, the report concedes that Americans have come to view marriage primarily as a soul-mate relationship, “where emotional intimacy, sexual satisfaction, and individual happiness rank at the top of marital aspirations, especially for younger adults.” However, since the economic downturn, couples are relying more heavily on their marriage and family to make it through uncertain times. According to W. Bradford Wilcox, “The recession reminds us that marriage is more than an emotional relationship; marriage is also an economic partnership and social safety net.”
According to the study, while fiscal challenges can bring marriages and families together, unemployment, foreclosures, debt, and losses to retirement savings can bring significant troubles to marriage and family stability. “In the face of such pressures, some spouses have succumbed to heavy drinking, depression, marital tension, recriminations, and conflict, spiraling downwards in some cases to divorce.” Despite these potential problems, the report reveals that the current recession has resulted in a decrease in the divorce rate, and that marital stability may be on the rise.
The report also examines the impact the economic downturn has had on American debt. Jeffrey Dew, one of the authors of the report, reveals several positive trends related to debt. First, while he explains that credit-card debt is generally toxic in a marriage, shared financial assets can also bind couples together. For instance, Dew’s research indicates that “couples with no assets were about 70 percent more likely to divorce over a three year period compared to couples with assets of $10,000.”
In addition to keeping more marriages together, the current recession is also having a positive effect on families with credit-card debt. The uncertainty is causing Americans to use their credit cards less often. Americans are paying down their debt. Credit-card debt peaked at $988 billion in 2008, and, in the past year, that number has decreased by $90 billion. 
According to Dr. Christine B. Whelan, there may be a silver lining in the current financial crisis. She points out that statistics indicate a more flexible attitude toward the traditional roles of fathers and mothers as they struggle make ends meet.
The Great Recession’s silver lining of increasing gender flexibility and equality is most likely to apply to better educated and younger Americans than to less educated older Americans. That is, young adults with a college education have the best chance at adaptation and change.
The stock market may begin to inch up slowly, but job losses and financial uncertainties will continue to have serious impacts on families for years to come. Among the most vulnerable are single-parent families and fragile cohabiting unions of the poor, and the most resilient will be the educated, dual-career couples who are able to adapt to more flexible family earning and caregiving arrangements. It is within this latter group that we can most hope for a boost for gender equality within marriage and a recognition that the American family can continue to thrive even when it is the wife and mother who is the primary breadwinner, and the husband and father who is the primary caregiver.
Finally, the report focuses exclusively on the “social health of marriage.” Below are some key findings:
Marriage
  • Marriage trends in recent decades indicate that Americans have become less likely to marry.
  • In the past ten years, the percentage of couples who consider their marriages to be “very happy” remains unchanged.
Divorce
  • American divorce rates are nearly twice that of 1960.
  • The divorce rate has steadily declined since its peak in the 1980s.
  • The probability of divorce or separation for a newly married couple is between 40 and 50 percent.
Cohabitation
  • The number of unmarried couples has increased dramatically over the past four decades, and the trend is continuing.
  • Most younger Americans now spend some time living together outside of marriage.
  • Unmarried cohabitation commonly precedes marriage.
Childrearing
  • The presence of children in America has declined significantly since 1960, as measured by fertility rates and the percentage of households with children.
  • Other indicators suggest that this decline has reduced the child centeredness of our nation and contributed to the weakening of the institution of marriage.
  • The percentage of children who grow up in fragile–typically fatherless–families has grown enormously over the past four decades. This is mainly due to increases in divorce, out-of-wedlock births, and unmarried cohabitation.
  • The trend toward fragile families leveled off in the late 1990s, but the most recent data shows a slight increase.
Teen Attitudes
  • The desire of teenagers of both sexes for “a good marriage and family life” has increased slightly over the past few decades. Boys are more than ten percentage points less desirous than girls, however, and they are also a little more pessimistic about the possibility of a long-term marriage.
  • Both boys and girls have become more accepting of lifestyles that are alternatives to marriage, especially unwed childbearing, although the latest data show a surprising drop in acceptance of premarital cohabitation.
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