February 2009
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Number of divorces in Israel rose by 5% in 2008 →
According to the report, this figure continues the steady trend of increase in divorces that started in 2003. The sharpest rise in divorces among the larger cities was registered in Modiin, where the number of married couples choosing to separate was 24% higher compared to last year. Among smaller cities, Hod Hasharon stood out with a 31% surge in divorces. (Related Link: Economic crisis leads to...
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China: Marriage Age Climbing →
The number of single men and women of marriage age continues to climb. They inevitably have to withstand the pressure from various sources to get married. Once the time of the Chinese New Year is approaching, the marriage issue becomes a topic of discussion after meals among friends and relatives more and more. Ms. Liu, 30 years old, who works at a foreign company in Hangzhou, posted an e-mail on...
January 2009
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UK: Number of Marriages Hit 111-Year Low in 2006 →
Iona Institute of Dublin, which works to promote civil society, especially through promoting marriage, reported this week on new figures published by the U.K. Office for National Statistics in its General Household Survey 2007, a poll of almost 13,000 homes across Britain.
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USC US-China Institute: Divorce increasingly... →
ON AN AVERAGE DAY IN CHINA 5,233 couples complete divorce proceedings. Two-thirds handle their divorces through the civil affairs offices of their local government. One-third divorce through the courts. The divorce level in China has been rapidly increasing since the 1980s.
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Social Web engages brides in all stages of... →
I’m fascinated by the camaraderie between brides on sites such as TheKnot.com and WeddingBee.com…women who are planning their weddings develop bonds. The anonymity of the Internet provides cover for anyone wanting to compare budgets or vent about family issues…I’ve seen posts from married women who frequented the message boards when they were engaged and are now returning...
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“We don’t want to just inspire. We want to give tools for successful marriages.”
– Kathy Steele, assistant professor of psychology and counseling at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
Article Link: NOBTS marriage initiative gains energy
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Marriage not regarded as 'best relationship' by... →
The annual British Social Attitudes report discovered that fewer than four out of 10 adults aged between 18 and 34 believe that marriage is the best kind of relationship, compared with more than eight out of 10 pensioners. The survey findings came on the heels of another government report that more young Britons will prefer to live together without the benefit of a marriage, which would make wed...
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UK: Repeat pregnancies among teenagers on the rise... →
The United Kingdom is recognised as having the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in western Europe…researchers at Nottingham found that the number of women under 20 presenting for repeat abortions has risen steadily over the last 15 years. The research, published this month in the international journal Contraception, analysed data for England and Wales in order to explore whether there are...
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Men 'become richer after divorce' →
Divorce makes men –particularly fathers – significantly richer, however, ex-wives are plunged into poverty, according to new research. Researchers in Britain have found that divorce makes men significantly richer because their available incomes rise by around one third, while the average woman’s income falls by more than a fifth and can remain low for many years. (Related Links)
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WatchPastor Ed Young on Comedy Central: Have more sex!
According to the National Opinion Research Center, the average American couple reports having sex 66 times a year. Newsweek has noted that 15% to 20% of couples have sex less than 10 times a year, which is defined as a “sexless” marriage.
Related Links: 365 Nights of Sex, Is Your Marriage Sex-Starved Quiz
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Will congress kill funds to hundreds of... →
Congress is rumored to want to pull the plug on the final years of the marriage funds, or divert it to fatherhood programs. Many of these programs are aimed at helping couples - especially low-income couples - figure out how to create a stable, secure and faithful relationship, i.e., marriage. ”At this time of severe belt-tightening in our country…it really makes a lot of sense to take...
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Britain: Is marriage dead? →
‘…there are now more women under 50 who have never been married than there are women who’ve tied the knot.’ The group of women aged 18-49 who have never been married has grown from 18 per cent three decades ago to a steady 38 per cent over the last five years for which data is available, according to the General Household Study carried out by the Office of National...
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Scotland: Decline of marriage is bad for us all! →
Support for marriage should actually be a cause behind which progressives rally. We may promise to wed for richer, for poorer, but we all live in an impoverished society if more and more people choose to put me before we.-Michael Gove is Shadow Secretary for Children, Schools and Families
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Should your wife have guy-friends? →
Jealousy over an opposite-sex friendship can be the result of projection, says Dr. Bonnie Jacobson, a New York City clinical psychologist and author of “Love Triangles: Seven Steps to Break the Secret Ties That Poison Love.” Some 83 percent of the people surveyed think that cross-gender friendships can and do exist, according to a 2001 Match.com poll of more than 1,500 members.
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“One important lesson I have learned in our 56+ years of marriage is that it is...”
– Syd Gross, Community Voices
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Egypt: Marriage in Crisis →
Unmarried “youth” of Egypt are stuck in limbo between childhood and adulthood, as Egyptian culture considers marriage the official turning point for becoming an adult. **In Middle Eastern culture, before marriage can take place, fiancés must fulfill individual obligations that add to the overall cost. **Given Egypt’s faltering economy, young men have enough trouble finding decent jobs to support...
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Trend: Married couples- a minority by next year...
Married couples will be in the minority by next year, new figures suggest, as increasing numbers choose to live together out of wedlock. Research from the Millennium Cohort Study has shown that married parents are more than twice as likely to stay together than those who are unwed.
Anastasia de Waal, director of family and education at think tank Civitas said, ”We know that households...
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Keeping love alive in service marriages →
Nicky and Sila Lee’s, authors The Marriage Course, whose program runs in over 70 countries has expanded to help military families. The Army’s chief of staff says that long tours of combat are damaging Service marriages. For army couples still struggling to cope, however, help is at hand. One British army major and his wife, who live on a barracks in Paderborn, Germany, have developed a...
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Vietnam: Youth living ‘freely’?
A recent survey conducted by a group of students shows that 70.2% of 3,600 male students believe that couples should live together on a trial basis and have sexual relations before marriage. The figure is 61.1% for schoolgirls.
Chief of the Cultural Research Department of the HCM City Institute for Research and Development, Dr. Dinh Van Lien, said the young are living very freely, but they do...
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Fatherhood video set to storm the world →
The DVDs also are designed for couples to watch together. ”The truth is, women have no idea what guys are actually thinking, which is a huge gap and a huge worry for a lot of women,” said Troy Jones who spent $10,000 making a DVD about fatherhood. A national distribution deal early on with the Big W chain was a key part of success in Australia and Mr Jones is negotiating a similar...
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Your Nest Is Empty? Enjoy Each Other →
In the empty-nest study, researchers compared the women’s marital happiness in their 40s, when many still had children at home; in their early 50s, when some had older children who had left home; and in their 60s, when virtually all had empty nests. At every point, the empty nesters scored higher on marital happiness than women with children still at home. (Read more)
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WatchBad Economy = Good News for Failing Marriages?
Still, an unusual thing is happening on the road to the big break up. The bad economy has been good news for some failing marriages. ”Many people are reconciling as they wait,” Leonard Ross, a local divorce attorney said. “They are finding out the grass isn’t always greener.” (Read more)
Video Part 2: ”The Secret...
Intermarriage trends →
Today’s interracial couples still experience second glances in public and occasionally more overt racism. Much tension and stigma remain, especially among older Americans and in rural areas, and especially concerning black and white couples. Interracial dating and marriage remain a deeply uncomfortable subject for many, if not an outright taboo. (Read more)
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Love potions for marriage counseling? →
Having trouble with your marriage? Take a pill! Believe it or not, this could happen, says the researcher who is examining the chemical composition of love. Could a pill or a squirt up your nose save your marriage? (Link to news articles)
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Memo to President-Elect: War on Poverty →
President-elect Obama, the collapse of marriage is the most important social problem facing the nation. When the War on Poverty began in the 1960s, 7 percent of U.S. children were born outside of marriage. Today, the number is 38 percent…(Read more)
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Tony Robbins looking for Couples for Video... →
Will you be in CA next week? If you’re in a relationship (married or not yet) and would like to visit with Tony Robbins for a few hours next week, apply to come to this special filming. I first saw Tony Robbins live at the Smart Marriages conference in Denver-2007. Great!
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Should Feds Collect Marital Statistics? →
Federal government stopped collecting detailed marriage and divorce data in 1996. This gigantic omission is now being corrected. In recent months, the Census Bureau added new marriage questions to its annual American Community Survey (ACS). -via The Washington Times
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Landmark survey of married couples in both North... →
In an initiative with historic implications for the international Jewish community, the Orthodox Union announced that it will conduct a landmark two-month survey of married couples in both North America and Israel to determine the level of marital satisfaction within the community. (Read more)
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Relationships: An evolutionist's point of view →
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via Chicago Tribune: Bridezilla is a myth! →
I’m not so sure why this article was in the World/Nation section the Chicago Tribune, but it sure is funny. The Tribune calls ”Bridezilla” an ‘imaginary cultural phenomenon’ (Read more)
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WatchCurbing Teen Dating Violence
Links: ABC News Report, MensNewsDaily response to ABC News Report, and New York Times: ‘A Rise in Efforts to Spot Abuse in Youth Dating’
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WatchHope to see you there!
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Lost 1996 interview with Obamas About Their... →
Le Monde Publishes Never-Before-Seen 1996 Interview With Obamas About Their Marriage. At the time, the unassuming Obamas were so ‘ordinary’ they were edited out of a 1996 book entitled ‘Couples in America’.
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WatchThere are about 3.4 million parents sharing a home with their adult children in the United States, according to census data released in December, up from 2.1 million in 2000.
The increase in extended-family households is a well-developed trend, “but people haven’t recognized its implications,” said Stephanie Coontz, author of “Marriage, A History” and director of...
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Date night is not mandatory for a good... →
Good news for parents who are cash-strapped in this economy: Date night is not mandatory for a good relationship. ”I’ve never been able to do date night. By the time it gets to be evening, the last thing I want to do is go out in the cold or rain, pay another baby sitter,” says Carol Bruess, director of Family Studies at the University of St. Thomas (Read more)
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Report released: National Birth Data →
NCHS report released this week: By population subgroup, the percentage of children born out of wedlock is 70.7 percent for non-Hispanic blacks, 64.6 percent for American Indians/Alaska Natives, 49.9 percent for Hispanics, 26.6 percent for non-Hispanic whites, and 16.5 percent for Asians/Pacific Islanders. (via National Center for Health Statistics)