by Shawn L. Christiansen, associate professor, Family Life and Human Development, Southern Utah University
As you walk through Tokyo you see a world inhabited by adults and ominously devoid of children. The birthrate in Tokyo is currently 1.09 per woman. In Tama, a city of about 200,000 outside Tokyo, six of its elementary schools have been closed, with three more scheduled to be shut down.When visiting Japan, you may feel as if you are in a Japanese postapocalyptic anime movie, where a human-caused disaster has rendered the population unable to reproduce. The truth is much less sinister in its explanation of fertility decline, but just as dire in the consequences for a nation without children.
"Americans increasingly delay family formation, meaning they marry or become a parent at later ages. This profile combines data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey and the Center for Disease Control’s National Vital Statistics to investigate the trends in women’s median age at first marriage and median age at first birth since 1980. The median age at first birth exceeded the age at first marriage until 1991, and today women are entering marriage at increasingly later ages than they are entering motherhood."
It’s a fact that children born today are born into families that look dramatically different from families of a generation ago. Today, more children than ever are born outside of marriage, largely due to delays in marriage and increases in cohabitation. Recent estimates by Child Trends show that 41 percent of all births in 2009 were to unmarried couples, roughly half to cohabiting couples.
Andrew Cherlin, NCFR Fellow and noted sociologist and demographer from Johns Hopkins University, discusses his areas of expertise: marriage, cohabitation, and societal trends in family formation including "The Deinstitutionalization of Marriage," the name he coined for these trends.
Former NCFR President Dr. Bill Doherty and pioneering "collaborative law" attorney Ron Ousky (author of The Collaborative Way to Divorce) were recent guests on the weekly parenting show Mom Enough, hosted by NCFR member Dr. Marti Erickson and her daughter Erin Erickson.
Listen to part 1 of a podcast with Dr. Marti Erickson and her daughter, Erin Erickson, on their Mom Enough parenting show, as they feature former NCFR President Dr. Bill Doherty talking about how "to help couples discern whether their marriage can be saved, and to take steps to do so when possible."
Family Life Now Census Update 2e explores the ways that family members and intimate partners interact, and examines how families adapt to stresses, changes, and everyday challenges. As products of our families of origins, who we are and who we become is influenced by our family lives, a central theme woven throughout the book.
Andrew Cherlin, NCFR Fellow and noted sociologist and demographer, discusses his areas of expertise; marriage, cohabitation, and societal trends in family formation including “The Deinstitutionalization of Marriage,” the name he coined for these trends.
