Sun, sand and endless horizons: In California, marriage is more than a state of mind.
It’s inevitable that California play an essential role in the direction of America–and be the bellweather of our country’s relationship trends.
One important reason for this is the fact that approximately one out of every eight Americans – or 37 million, as of 2008 – is a resident of California. And California was the state where the concept of divorce was revolutionized in the 1960s, as a study released in October of 2008 by the California Healthy Marriages Coalition acknowledges in its opening statement:
“Forty years ago, California led the nation in becoming the first state to ease dissolution laws so that just one spouse could end a marriage, thus creating “no-fault” divorce. Intended to ease the burden on family courts by helping unhappy couples quickly end a seemingly unfixable relationship, the number of marriage break-ups surged, and in
these forty years, millions of California’s children have found their families broken apart. Currently, about 120,000 California couples get divorced every year.”
The California Healthy Marriages Coalition, the non-profit organization was able to conduct this study in 2006, thanks to an $11.9 Million grant received from the US Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (HHS/ACF). This is to date the largest grant ever awarded by HHS/ACF in support of Healthy Marriages.
And yet, contrary to the impression that Americans and the world may have gotten from the media that Californians have a casual attitude toward the institution of marriage the study found such notable results as these:
“*More than eight-out-of-ten Californians (84 percent) believe couples who marry should make a lifelong commitment to one another, to be broken only under extreme circumstances. A total of 82 percent of Californians believe divorce is a serious national problem in the United States today and only 10 percent of all respondents believe marriage is “an old fashioned, outmoded institution.”
*Three-fourths of unmarried Californians (76 percent) would like to be married someday.
*More than nine-out-of-ten Californians (97 percent) agree or strongly agree that most married couples have worked through good times and bad times together. When asked if they believed couples with strong marriages are “just luckier in love,” 58 percent disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement.”
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the survey is that in a place where the institution of marriage has stood on shaky grounds for decades the vast majority of respondents clearly embraced the concept of creating strong and lasting committed relationships.
“*The vast majority of Californians affirm traditional values related to marriage (such as marriage being a “lifelong commitment”) and family (belief that it is better for a child to be raised “with a married mother and father” and that “fathers are as important as mothers”).
*For currently married Californians, an astounding 87 percent rate their relationship as “extremely” or “very” satisfying. More than nine-in-ten respondents rank their marital relationship as a top priority, expect to be married for life, and would marry the same person again.
*A surprisingly high 22 percent of married Californians have attended a Marriage Education program, and most (95 percent) found it helpful and most (79 percent) stated that the program strengthened their marriage to “some” or “great” extent.
*The State of California’s Unions reveals that Californians hold a high value for marriage and believe it’s an institution worth protecting with stricter dissolution laws, increased availability of relationship education, and greater social support.”
Tomorrow, in Part 2, we’ll see that the ideal and the reality are not always the same. We’ll reveal what steps the report thought essential to narrow that gap if we are to extend and strengthen the institution of marriage.
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This is the first of a two-part story on The State of Marriage in California. It will be part of an ongoing series that will track the health of marriages across America and around the world.
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Other MVL Articles of Interest
Why Committed Relationships Are Good for Your Health
Love and Marriage: How Big Problems Grow Out of Small Stuff
Marriage Works. Here’s When and How
Unhappy Marriages Are Bad for Your Health
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[...] at first marriage. These states also represent the extremes for age at first marriage. Residents of Idaho get married the youngest, with the median age at a man’s first marriage of 25 [...]