The state of our unions 2010 : when marriage disappears : the new middle America

State of Our Unions 2010: When Marriage Disappears finds that shifts in marriage mores, increases in unemployment, and declines in religious attendance have played a particularly important role in driving the retreat from marriage in middle America. This retreat from marriage is placing the American Dream beyond the reach of many in our society, imperiling the social and economic welfare of children from middle America, and opening up a social and cultural divide in our nation that does not bode well for the American experiment in democracy. "New data indicate that trends in nonmarital childbearing, divorce, and marital quality in Middle America increasingly resemble those of the poor, where marriage is fragile and weak. Yet among the highly educated and affluent, marriage is stable and appears to be getting even stronger ... [The investigators find] that shifts in marriage attitudes, increases in unemployment, and declines in religious attendance are among the trends driving this retreat. Meanwhile, in a striking reversal of historic trends, highly educated Americans are moving to embrace a pro-marriage mindset even as Middle Americans are losing ground when it comes to marriage."--The publisher's website The State of Our Unions series monitors the current health of marriage and family life in America. This 2010 edition reviews statistics on marriage, divorce, unmarried cohabitation, loss of child centeredness, fragile families with children, and teen attitudes about marriage and family, and features the special article: When marriage disappears: the retreat from marriage in middle America, by W. Bradford Wilcox