Changing Family Patterns - Partnerships

Partnerships:

Marriage: Trends and reasons for the trends

• Less people are marrying overall: decline in first marriages, 175,000 in 2012 – less than half of 1970.

• There are more remarriages: 2012 -one third of marriages were remarriages – pattern of serial monogamy – (marriage, divorce, and re-marriage).

• People are marrying later: due to increase in cohabitation & people focusing on careers first, especially women. 

• Less church weddings: due to secularisation and some religions not remarrying divorcees.

Cohabitation: Trends and reasons for the trends

• Cohabitation = an unmarried couple living together in a sexual relationship-continues to increase.

• More people are cohabiting

Reasons for the increase:

• Less stigma around…