High school seniors might be developing more pro-marriage attitudes for themselves, but they are increasingly more accepting of non-marriage arrangements for others, according to a recent report.
“The State of Our Unions: 2005” is the seventh in a series of annual reports from the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University in New Jersey. It cites a variety of other surveys and studies to describe American attitudes and trends concerning marriage, divorce, cohabitation and other family issues.
Citing a survey from Michigan, researchers report an increase in the percentage of high school seniors who said they expect to stay married to the same person for life. But the poll also found a greater acceptance of people having children out of wedlock.
The “Monitoring the Future” poll found 68 percent of girls and 65 percent of boys expecting to get married said they “very likely” will stay married to the same person for life.
That was up from 63 percent among girls and 54 percent among boys in 1990. “At the same time, there is widespread acceptance by teenagers of non-marital lifestyles,” the authors wrote.
The same survey found 56 percent of girls and 55 percent of boys agreed with the statement; “Having a child without being married is experimenting with a worthwhile lifestyle or not affecting anyone else.”
“That was up significantly from 1980, when 41 percent of girls and 33 percent of boys agreed with the statement. While in 1980, girls tended to be more traditional than boys on this issue, now they are slightly less so,” the authors noted.
(ABP)
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