The decline of the traditional family
UB sociology professor begins study on why some choose cohabitation over marriage

By Patricia Donovan
News Services Editor

The obvious decline of the traditional family is raising concern among some sociologists and policymakers. The increasing rates of divorce and cohabitation, two of the trends that mark this decline, illustrate Americans' paradoxical attitude toward marriage and family, a UB sociologist says.

Lynn Magdol, assistant professor of sociology, recently began a qualitative study of cohabitors to find out how and why they choose this arrangement instead of marriage. She also conducted a quantitative survey of UB students about their changing attitudes toward these new arrangements.

"Marriage and family are idealized in this country," Magdol said, "and, officially at least, we hold them to be sacred. On the face of it, our behavior seems to support that position. Nearly all of us express a desire for an exclusive, intimate association; at least 90 percent of us say we want to marry, most of us do and the majority of us want to have children.

"As traditionally constituted, however, marriage and family apparently aren't satisfying the social and intimacy needs of many people." she said.

She cites the evidence:

- Although most Americans do marry at some point, they are delaying marriage until they are older.

- Once married, demographers project that married couples have a 50 percent chance of divorcing. Andrew Cherlin, a leading family demographer, notes that the divorce rate in the 1980s was twice what it was in the 1950s, and has declined only moderately since then. To put this in another perspective," says Magdol, "In 1880, two of every 1,000 couples divorced each year. Today, 20 of every 1000 couples divorce each year-a 10-fold increase over 100 years."

- The U.S. birth rate is down.

- More Americans elect to have children outside of marriage than any time in our history.

- Cohabitation is on the rise in all sectors. The 1970 Census estimated that 500,000 households consisted of heterosexual unmarried couples. Today, more than 3.7 million households fit that description.

- Sixty percent of divorced people who remarry start out by living together. Conversely, a substantial number of divorced persons who cohabit remarry.

The result of these changes, said Magdol, is that Americans spend less time married over the course of their lives than they used to. Marriage is less central to our life course and less central to our decision to bear children. "It isn't that we're just tossing the traditional forms out the window," she says. "Most couples who live together eventually marry. We are, however, stretching and molding the institutions of marriage and family to accommodate new kinds of relational units and intimate liaisons. "

Magdol expects her study, now in the pilot stage, to clarify the ways attitudes toward marriage and family are evolving and where they are heading. It will involve in-depth interviews with approximately 50 couples of different ages and stations in life who are living together outside of marriage, some for decades.

"Already, we've seen a marked difference between the reasons young adults live together and why those in their 40s, 50s and 60s live together," she said.

Magdol said her research team wants to know why couples adopt this non-traditional lifestyle on a temporary or permanent basis. Do couples formally share this decision, she asks, and what benefits do they think they derive? How does their behavior and expectation correlate with those of married couples?

The study will produce an insiders' perspective, she says, as opposed to much of social-science research, in which an outsider imposes interpretations on behavior-that of the researcher, according to Magdol.

Americans have come to accept broader and more varied definitions of "family" and "marriage" than they have in the past. Because of this, more and more of us will be involved in such non-traditional arrangements in years to come, Magdol says, because it will carry less stigma.

This has important public-policy implications, she notes, and the study is likely to suggest new avenues of quantitative research to help adapt policy to reality.

She agrees that there are some who fear that the increased rates of cohabitation herald the decline of the larger social institution we call 'family.' "The truth is," Magdol says, "cohabitation has always existed, but it has been more or less invisible until recently. It usually involved those on the lower end of the economic and social scale, and was stigmatized by the middle classes. The reason that it has drawn so much attention of late and carries less shame, she says, is that those same middle classes have come to practice it quite openly.

No one need worry that marriage is dead, however. Magdol points out that there are many physical, emotional, social and economic benefits offered to those who are married. Even if we experience divorce, we tend to remarry.

"A broader definition of 'family' is growing among Americans, one that embraces unmarried couples, interracial and intercultural families, adopted families, 'constructed' or non-kinship families of unrelated persons, gay and lesbian families, and so on."

Although some may want to return to the narrowly defined "family values" that they fear have been left behind, that is unlikely to happen, Magdol says. "Some are constructing new, perhaps more efficient and secure ways to have traditional needs met," she says, "and we'd like to explore their perimeters.