April 2009
42 posts
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Married couples will soon be a minority in Britain →
Within 20 years, only two out of five adults will be married, according to the Office for National Statistics. Husbands and wives will make up only 41 percent of the over-16 population by 2031, when they will be outnumbered by divorcees, single people and cohabiting couples. There were 231,450 marriages in 2007, 3.3 per cent fewer than the year before. The only year in which there was a smaller...
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March 2009
52 posts
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Repairing marriage bonds key to recovering from... →
Problem gambling can shake every aspect of one’s life – particularly a marriage, which can crumble under the weight of financial stress and betrayal. But Dr. Bonnie Lee says the relationship between gambling and marital stress isn’t as straightforward as many assume. “Most people think linearly, ‘Look what problem gambling did,’” argues the assistant professor in the Addictions Counselling program...
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How (and Why) Athletes Do Go Broke? →
By the time they have been retired for two years, 78% of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress because of joblessness or divorce. Skills on the court or field are not enough. Within five years of retirement, an estimated 60% of former NBA players are broke. Who else sees the need for a relationship skills programs tailored to professional athletes?
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WatchAre Teen “Sexters” Sex Offenders? Results of a survey of teens indicate that most teens send suggestive images and texts to their boyfriends and girlfriends. Referred to as sexting—sex and texting—the majority of teens believe that sending these messages can have “serious negative consequences”. Yet almost half of teens say doing this is “common” and admit to doing this forwarding...
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UK: Substituting financial poverty with relational... →
The UK has one of the highest proportions of men working very long hours of all OECD countries, and men with children work longer hours than men without children. Working long hours is on the rise again in the UK and is likely to increase even further. The National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) found that 75% of working families experience some weekend work and in over half of these – 2.41...
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white paper: Approaches to Strengthen Families &... →
Achieving balance between work and family—especially within a shrinking economy—is challenging for all families. The Obama-Biden plan for families includes several agenda items for supporting low-income and working families, and presents an overall strategy to strengthen families at home, to ensure that all American families can work and care for their children. This white paper notes lessons...
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UK: Marriage boom fuels demand for vasectomy... →
A boom in second marriages has led to a rise in the number of people changing their minds about earlier decisions not to have any more children. Duncan Harriss, a surgeon who offers the procedure at the BMI Park Hospital in Nottingham, said he now carries out up to 150 a year operations a year, compared with only about 10 or 15 in the late 1990s. Mr Hariss, who has two children, told The...
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via WSJ: Delay of Marriage = Decline Church... →
The most powerful force driving religious participation down is the nation’s recent retreat from marriage, Princeton sociologist Robert Wuthnow notes. Nothing brings women and especially men into the pews like marriage and parenthood, as they seek out the religious, moral and social support provided by a congregation upon starting a family of their own. But because growing numbers of young...
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WatchChick-fil-A + Creativity = Marriage Stimulus
Congrats to Richard Marks and the Marriage For Life team out of Jacksonville, FL.
Too many know firsthand the emotional and financial toll of family breakdown. I’m inspired by the passion of others to strengthen families.
When you love someone who is in self-destructive patterns, it’s amazing how creative you become.
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Will true love last? Mathematical model may... →
Couples wondering if true love will last could find out if they are a match made in heaven by subjecting themselves to a mathematical test. In a study of 700 couples, Professor James Murray, a maths expert at Oxford University, predicted the divorce rate with 94 per cent accuracy. His calculations were based on the simplest of things - a 15-minute conversation between a couple.
**My High School...
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Cost of Family Breakdown in Canada (report to be... →
Too many Canadians know firsthand the emotional toll of family breakdown. And few would dispute there’s a financial cost, too; a split household means paying rent twice, for example. There’s also a public toll as a consequence of family breakdown, since the state often pays out benefits to help support broken families. It’s this national financial burden that we aim to measure in...
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study: 'Romantic Love Fades with Time'- NOT TRUE! →
A new study finds this commonly held assumption just isn’t true. Couples can maintain the romance — defined as intensity, engagement and sexual chemistry — in long-term relationships. The findings of the study, published in the March issue of the Review of General Psychology, could help people strive for more satisfying long-term relationships and even persuade some jaded single...
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“It is critical to understand that the “private decision” to divorce...”
– John Stemberger, President of Florida Family Policy Council. (article link)
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WatchFinances and Marriage
Listen to some sound financial advice from Seattle psychologist Dr. Les Parrott. He says finances are frequently a source of relationship trouble and with the economy in shambles, it’s an extra strain for many marriages. (Read full article)
Related: Money Management Styles, Dr. Les Parrott’s Website
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Teen Dating Violence: How does your state measure... →
Each state treats teen victims of dating violence differently, but not all ways are created equal. Break the Cycle conducted a nation-wide review of state laws and found common trends—both positive and negative—that directly impact the protection of teens. California’s grade for protecting teen victims of dating and domestic violence is an A, while the bordering state of Arizona received an...
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via Army: Strong Bonds Marriage →
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. - With the sounds of the nearby Atlantic Ocean waves crashing the sandy beaches, more than 50 couples renewed their wedding vows during the finale of a three-day marriage retreat weekend. Sponsored by the 81st Regional Support Command, the Strong Bonds’ Marriage Enrichment Workshop brought 72 Army Reserve Soldiers and their spouses to the island resort recently....
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trend: We marry later and guzzle more energy →
AUSTRALIANS are putting off marriage until they are older or opting out of it altogether. About three-quarters of couples who have married since 2000 lived together beforehand, compared with a rate of only 3 per cent in the 1960s. In 1986, the most common relationship for people aged 18 to 24 was marriage, whereas now it is a de facto relationship. When we do marry, we do it later. In 2007, the...
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“Most popular marriage advice, in the past and today, calls for “couples” to work...”
– Kristin Celello, author of Making Marriage Work: A History of Marriage and Divorce…
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Abu Dhabi sends a message on marriage →
The Abu Dhabi Campaign for Social Cohesion, an eight-day campaign to promote family values and encourage young couples to work at marriage, came to its culmination today. It involved several government entities, including Abu Dhabi Police, Abu Dhabi Electricity Authority and Abu Dhabi Municipality. Adel al Rabeeah, Abu Dhabi Municipality’s public relations manager, said it was important for...
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Dubai - marriage and the global financial crisis →
DUBAI — Not only is the global financial crisis taking a toll on the economy, but it’s also shaking family ties and could lead to more divorces, according to experts. // The General Women’s Union and Marriage Fund, in a bid to reduce high divorce levels here, have started offering classes to orient young people and couples about the responsibilities of marriage. K.K. Sarachandra Bose, a lawyer at...
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US births break record - 40% are out-of-wedlock →
More babies were born in the United States in 2007 than any year in the nation’s history, topping the peak during the baby boom 50 years earlier, federal researchers reported Wednesday. There is both good and bad news from the more than 4.3 million births: The U.S. population is more than replacing itself, a healthy trend. However, the teen birth rate was up for the second year in a row. //...
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Australia: Loneliness is a significant problem →
MARRIAGE benefits men more than women and single men are lonelier than single women, according to a survey. The Australian Unity Wellbeing Index, which covered 2,000 people and focused on the link between wellbeing and loneliness and money and debt, found that loneliness is a significant problem among Australians. Related: Sydney, AUS - Attitudes Toward Divorce
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70% of churches have no... →
While the median size of Episcopal Church congregations and overall membership has declined in recent years, that pattern matches trends in most mainline Protestant denominations and points to larger patterns in U.S. culture, according to analyses of recent data. // The statistical view of the Episcopal Church comes from two reports by Kirk Hadaway, program officer for congregational research in...
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study: Attitudes towards divorce - Syndey, AUS →
Marriage is for life, right? Most Australians agree with the proposition. But most also think it is perfectly all right for unhappy couples to divorce, even if they have children. // 63 percent of men and 70 percent of women thought it was “all right for a couple with an unhappy marriage to get a divorce, even if they have children”. // A higher proportion of women than men in all age...
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“Today, marriage is something to delay — or avoid — and if it is achieved, with...”
– Cheryl Wetzstein - Washington Times (click to read full article)
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Is It Possible to Recession Proof Your... →
Kit Yarrow, a consumer psychologist and professor of psychology and business at Golden Gate University in San Francisco, offers these five tips to help couples recession-proof their relationships: Expand Meaning of Wealth, Consider New Roles, Create a Routine, Mind the Gap, and Do the Doable. -ABC News February 15, 2009 & reprint Washington Times March 15, 2009.
Related: Recession and...
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Children born to unmarried parents rises 50% in 30... →
Scotland - The number of children born out of wedlock remained almost unchanged for more than a century before beginning a sudden and apparently unstoppable rise. // Scotland is mirroring similar trends in the rest of the UK and northern Europe, but the traditionally liberal Scandinavian countries still lead the field when it comes to children born to unmarried couples. // Interested in US trends?...
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survey: Many teens blame Rihanna for her beating →
BOSTON - A survey conducted by the Boston Public Health Commission on the dating violence incident involving pop music idols Chris Brown and Rihanna revealed that nearly half of Boston youths surveyed said she was “responsible” for what happened while 52 percent said they were both to blame.
More articles: Google News // Teen resources: Dibble Institute
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2009 Irving Kristol Lecture: The Happiness of the... →
March 11, 2009 at AEI Annual Dinner via Charles Murray: ‘To become a source of deep satisfaction, a human activity has to meet some stringent requirements. It has to have been important (we don’t get deep satisfaction from trivial things). You have to have put a lot of effort into it (hence the cliché “nothing worth having comes easily”). And you have to have been...
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Raising the Bar on Quality of Marriage as Baby... →
Today, the majority of families do not have young children at home, according to a population survey released last week by the U.S. Census Bureau. In the early 1960s, almost 60 percent of families had children younger than 18 living at home; that percentage has now dropped to 46 percent. — For centuries, a major premise of marriage has been to reproduce and raise a next generation. It still...
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Boost Your Sex Life When the Dow Plunges →
While having a good sex life can’t solve all marriage problems, it certainly goes a long way towards easing the tensions. Psychologist Ian Kerner, a New York City-based sex therapist, says, ”I’m seeing a lot more couples with mismatched libidos, often guys who are unemployed or stressed about their job security and experiencing low-level depression, which has a deleterious effect...
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Why are divorce rates higher for remarrying... →
A survey of 1,000 people who are remarried or are considering remarriage conducted in March 2008 by Remarriage LLC reveals that 31 percent said they need more access to relationship, legal and financial advice and 27 percent said they need guidance on blended families. Yet 59 percent said it’s easier to find a diet they could stick to than it is to find resources on remarriage. Where are all...
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WatchWashington plans to pour $5 million into national media campaign aimed at 18-to-30 year. olds about benefits of a healthy marriage. Should the government do so?
How about getting more dollars on the ground to organizations /partners who reach these folks on a daily basis and give them funds to tell their stories? (Fox report)
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UK: Will recession strengthen families? →
Nick Clegg, the LibDem leader, proclaimed recently that “a savage recession, like a war, shakes the traditional identity of men and women”, and that unemployed men could “reinvent” themselves as hands-on fathers and proudly support their still-working womenfolk. —The recession is stripping marriage bare, forcing partners to look at each other face on, undistracted by the sideshows of...
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Parent Marital Quality and the Parent-Adolescent... →
Having a bad relationship with one or both of their parents increased the odds of early onset of sexual activity, of starting sexual activity by age 18 and of having unprotected sex in the mid-teen years. This was true for the full sample, males, females, youth in step-families and in bio-parent families, although not consistently for all categories.
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A Battle to Save a Marriage →
“Good Morning America” follows Kathryn and Heath, a couple married for 12 years, through the counselling sessions. The couple have found themselves at a crossroads in their marriage that very well could lead to a divorce. —very intense video.
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Bill proposes 'divorce classes' →
A bill filed in the Texas House would require married couples with children seeking a no fault divorce to take the 10-hour class. Republican Representative Warren Chisum who authored the bill said, ”If we can save a few marriages, and I think we can save more than a few, but if we can save a few, it’s worth our effort.”
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WatchIs Economy Affecting Divorce Rates?
The decline in the housing market is also contributing to the decrease in divorces. With “upside down” mortgages, it may not be a question of splitting the assets, but dividing the liability, instead. Some couples are deciding to tough it out til the tough times pass. (Article Link)
Related: CNN-“Economy prolongs some marriages, ends...
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