A Question of Stability

Marriage is one of the most stable relational forms of coexistence. This is proven by the “2017 World Family Map,” presented on 16 February, at Roma Tre University, during the conference on “Family Inequality: Causes and Consequences in Europe & the Americas.”

The document, an annual report from the Social Trends Institute and the Institute for Family Studies, contains very interesting data concerning the different degrees of prosperity and stability of children in two different situations: marriage and cohabitation.

Throughout the world, cohabitation is on the rise, and the map aims at understanding its possible consequences for family stability around the globe. Special attention is given to the United States and Europe, where cohabitation is a spreading phenomenon, whereas there do not seem to be significant changes in other geographical areas.

The study, which analyses the situation in over 60 countries around the world, shows that children born in Europe and in the US to couples who live together experience higher levels of instability during the first 12 years of life than children born to married couples; that growth and the increase of cohabitating couples is associated with greater instability in countries throughout the world; and that cohabitation is normally less stable than marriage for children, in all countries where families living together are more widespread than those in marriage.

“We find no evidence supporting the idea that in societies where cohabiting births are more common, marriage and cohabitation come to resemble each other in terms of stability for children, even if this idea is increasingly common in a number of countries—says Laurie DeRose, Research Director of the World Family Map and Professor of Sociology at George Town University—and, on average, marriage is associated with greater stability for children around the globe, including in countries where it is declining.” “We know that children live a prosperous life when they are in a stable context, and when their parents are in stable relationships”, echoed W. Bradford Wilcox, one of the main authors of the report and professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia.

Specifically, in the Italian context, for example, no child born to married parents experiences the breakdown of the relationship of his/her parents before age 12, while more than 10% of the children born to cohabiting couples face this breakdown before the age of 12 years.

For info and details: https://ifstudies.org

To consult the 2017 World Family Map: http://worldfamilymap.ifstudies.org/2017/files/WFM-2017-FullReport.pdf