Ambivalency rules out marriage boom

Press, 28 May 1984, Page 29

Ambivalency rules out marriage boom

NZPA-AAP Canberra Australia was unlikely to see another marriage boom like that of the war years because of the ambivalent attitude of many young people towards marriage, said the Institute of Family Studies. In its 1982-83 annual report to the Federal Parliament, the institute said that although most young people planned to marry, their confidence about marriage was low. “It could be said with only slight exaggeration that the adjectives ambivalent, uncertain, apprehensive, equivocal, confused, and inconsistent apply in the attitudes towards marriage of many young people,” it said. “Evidently high levels of economic insecurity and the demonstration effect of a high divorce rate have made young people extremely tentative about marriage," it said. The institute also found that the increased incidence of divorce was connected to the decline in two-parent families, the rise of oneparent families, and the rise of “couple” families in the 30 to 44 age range. In a comparison of data from the 1966 and 1981 censuses, the institute found that one-parent families

headed by a woman who had never married were the fastest growing family type, although their proportion of all families was small. The association between the age of leaving school and the age at marriage suggested there would not be a marriage boom particuarly because unemployment meant that young people were likely to stay at school longer and postpone marriage. The economic insecurity of the 1970 s and the high divorce rate had probably deterred young couples from starting a family even though most indicated they wanted to have children, the institute found in its 1981-82 Family Formations Study of Australians aged 18 to 34. The aversion to childbearing over the age of 30 could change as the younger generation, who had delayed first births, moved through their 30s, it said. A small rise in fertility rates above age 30 was evident but a subsgtantial rise was unlikely given present social structures, particularly regarding employment

The report said it could be expected that many people who delayed having children until they were “established,” would mean many birth expectations

would not be met. It also found that based on 1982 divorce rates, 40 per cent of marriages including second marriages, were likely to end in divorce, with 35 per cent likely to end in the first 25 years. From 1973 to 1982, 413,706 children under the age of 18 were affected by divorce. However the institute said that the death of a spouse ends more marriages each year than divorce, although as the marriages end at a later age, a smaller number of dependent children are affected. As well as the increasing number of marriage breakdowns and single parent families (13.2 per cent in 1981), and the declining birthrate, the institute said that changes to the Australian family were also caused by the increasing number of married women in the paid labour force. “Yet a nineteenth century work timetable dictates the patterns of modern family life,” it said. “Hours of work, shopping hours, public transport, the lack of rights to sick leave and maternity leave, paternity leave, superannuation for part-time workers, poor child care provision, all reflect a failure to consider the facts of a changed Australian family structure.”