Byzantine Catholic Family Matters

Marriage, Family and Community I

All is Not Well....

The National Marriage Project at Rutgers University describes itself as a nonpartisan, nonsectarian, and interdisciplinary center for research and analysis on the state of marriage in the United States. Through the work of The National Marriage Project we can begin to better understand the impact of our culture on marriage, family and community life. In the Project's annual report, The State of Our Unions: 2005, David Popenoe compared the state of marriage (and family life) in the two Western industrialized nations that have experienced the greatest weakening of marriage and the nuclear family in the past forty years. The two nations are Sweden and, hold onto your hats, the United States. In fact the United States has the lowest percentage, sixty-three percent, of children (under age eighteen) living with both biological parents. Sweden has the second lowest at seventy-three percent. How can this be? The United States and Sweden are two very different nations in the industrialized West, with the United States having the lowest overall tax rate and Sweden the highest; with the United States being the most religious and Sweden among the most secular; and the United States having the weakest or most laissez-faire public sector and Sweden the strongest.

Popenoe explains that the secular and liberal mindsets in Sweden have led to a virtual elimination of both government incentives for marriage and cultural stigmas against cohabitation. Sweden, as a result has the lowest marriage rate in the industrialized West. And those couples who cohabit are much more likely to end their relationships than those who marry. In contrast, the United States, though it has a higher marriage rate, has the world's highest divorce rate.

Though the two nations have the lowest percentages of children living with both their biological mother and father, in some ways Sweden does seem to be more child friendly, more traditional or socially conservative. Consider the following comparisons Popenoe cites:

In Sweden married couples who have children under sixteen and who are seeking a divorce have a six month waiting period before a divorce is finalized. In the United States most states do not impose distinctions for couples with children.

In Sweden no abortion is permitted after the eighteenth week of pregnancy without review and permission of a national board. In the United States all but three states permit abortion through the third trimester.

In Sweden very few children are in child care or other out of home arrangements in their first year of life as mothers are given one year maternity leave at eighty percent pay and up to six additional months at reduced pay with the guarantee of being able to return to their old job. Fathers have the option of two months paternity leave. In the United States such benefits are much more restrictive. (That both parents find the need to work outside the home in the Western industrialized world is another issue for later in this series.)

While Sweden may be more child friendly, in the single most important variable – children raised by their biological parents – and optimally whose parents are happily married to one another, both Sweden and the United States come up short.

In the next segment of this series we will look at the reasons behind the high divorce rate in the United States.