More marriage education needed for merry matrimony
A study was released on Feb. 10 by the Governor’s Commission on Marriage that will help lawmakers introduce policies that may strengthen marriages and decrease the divorce rate.
The project was conducted by Utah State University and reveals important information about how Utahns feel about marriage and divorce, said Melanie Reese from the Governor’s Commission on Marriage.
“It’s a baseline,” Reese said. “It’s a start for us. It tells us where we should focus our efforts.”
The study is the first of its kind to be done in Utah, said David Schramm, author of the study and research associate for the USU Family and Consumer Health Department.
Lots of research is available about marriage and divorce on a national level, but nothing this specific or detailed has ever been conducted in Utah, Schramm said. That’s important because Utah may not be representative of national statistics, he said. Utah is only the second state to look at these kinds of statistics on a state level.
“This is a ground-breaking kind of report,” Schramm said. “There has been overwhelming interest in this project. The focus of the report is to provide broad understanding of the state of the family and marriage in Utah.”
James Marshall, co-author of the study and USU family extension specialist, said this kind of study is important in understanding why marriages are failing. Understanding the reasons for divorce should be important to the state because divorce has strong social and economic impacts on everyone regardless of marital status, Marshall said.
Divorce is costing the state of Utah more than $300 million a year, Schramm said. That equals about $312 per household. Schramm said nationwide the problem is even worse with divorce costing the U.S. around $3.3 billion per year.
These costs are huge, Schramm said, and because of those high costs, government “should have an interest in helping marriages stabilize.”
“A lot has to do with the fact that it boils down to money,” Marshall said. “What I mean by that is that the divorce rate is quite high and divorce costs the state a whole lot of money – it’s why lawmakers have become interested in lowering the divorce rate.”
The study shows that marriage education may be one effective way to reduce divorce and increase marital success. Respondents who had taken part in marriage education reported higher levels of satisfaction in their marriage and lower rates of divorce. In addition, 24 percent of those who had divorced cited little or no helpful premarital education as a major cause for their divorce.
The study also shows that 92 percent of people believe it is important for couples to prepare for marriage through premarital education.
Reese says she hopes this study will spur lawmakers to make premarital education programs a higher priority and make them more readily available.
“When 92 percent of people express they believe marriage education is important, we know we’re on the right track,” Reese said. But only 27 percent of people have actually taken part in marriage education, leading Reese to say she believes these kinds of programs need to be made more well-known, accessible and available.
“[Ninety-two percent] is a really high number,” Schramm said. “It tells us that people are interested.”
Schramm said it is now up to lawmakers and other organizations to put this knowledge to use.
The average age people are getting married in Utah is 3.5 years younger than the age nationally – all the more reason to make premarital education a priority, Reese said.
“I think it is very important to look into some kind of preparation,” Reese said. “Utahns tend to get married young so we miss out on some of those skills. Marriage is skill-based.”
Marshall said some of those skills include communication, conflict resolution, honesty and constructive problem solving. He also says premarital education can help couples think about issues they may not have otherwise thought about such as financs, their sexual relationship and their future with children – all things Marshall says are important to discuss before getting married, not just after.
Marshall hopes to see better marriage and relationship education taking place in high schools and colleges.
“The ideal place is in public schools at the high school level,” Marshall said. “Many are getting married right out of high school so the earlier they can get this education the better.”
Schramm agreed saying, “Nearly one-fourth of women getting married in Utah are 19 or younger, so it’s important we provide education to this younger population that may have unrealistic expectations. That first year of marriage is really a difficult time. They get married and don’t see the whole picture of the work that marriage takes – 18 percent of all divorces occur before the couple hits two years.”
Schramm said he was surprised to find those in the low-income bracket expressed a higher interest in marriage education than those in the middle-class bracket. He says this is a wonderful discovery and hopes that more resources will be made available to this group, especially because this group has higher divorce rates.
“With lower income comes additional struggles, many obviously financial. If those financial concerns are real, stress can work its way into other areas of the relationship, so money is a big factor,” Schramm said.
The study also reports the divorce rate is 3 percent lower in Utah than national rates and Utah couples who are married indicate higher levels of marital happiness than married people nationally (74 percent compared to 64 percent). Utah also reports lower rates of cohabitation before marriage with 16 percent of couples in Utah living together before marriage compared to 53 percent nationally.
Schramm said the younger age group in Utah (ages 18 to 24) is more likely to view cohabitation favorably and express less confidence in marriage than their parents and grandparents.
“Overall there is more acceptance of alternative lifestyles. I think they [younger group] are facing obstacles and challenges that the older group isn’t,” Schramm said.
According to the study, those who live together before marriage often find lower levels of satisfaction once they are married and are more prone to divorce and have marriages that don’t last as long.
“Some people say the people who cohabitate are different than those who don’t initially. Some say maybe it’s the fact that they cohabitate that changes them,” Marshall said. “Whatever the reason, those who cohabitate before marriage tend to be less-committed to their relationship.”
Schramm said a couple’s involvement in their religion can also affect the success of their marriage. The study revealed that 74 percent of those who have never been divorced attend church three or more times a month, while 53 percent of those who have divorced only attend church occasionally or never.
Schramm says this is probably because commitment is such a key issue in marriage and those couples who are strongly committed to a religion are more likely to be committed to each other.
“LDS or not, those who profess a religious belief, attend church, and acknowledge a god, are happier,” he said.
Marshall says the strong levels of religious commitment in Utah may account for its higher levels of marital satisfaction. Those with strong religious beliefs are also less-likely to cohabitate.
The age people are married, mental health, and substance abuse also contribute to the success of a marriage, the study shows. Those married between ages 20 and 23 reported the highest levels of happiness in marriage. The study also revealed the reasons Utahns are getting divorced, with lack of commitment and conflict at the top of the list. Other reasons included getting married too young, financial problems and domestic abuse as reasons for divorce.
Reese hopes that organizations outside the government will take advantage of the information the study provides and use it to better the marriages in the communities around them.
Schramm said this study has “implications for everyone” and USU students will benefit from the results of this study because roughly 90 percent of them will be married. Schramm hopes applied classes that directly focus on improving marriages, parenting and relationships will soon be offered at USU.
The study surveyed 1,316 adults, 58 percent of whom were married. The first study like this took place in Oklahoma and Oklahoma’s Bureau of Social research was involved in helping USU obtain its data.
The entire study can be found at www.utahmarriage.org as well as many other resources provided by the Governor’s Commission on Marriage including resources for engaged couples and those who already married. The Web site was started in 2001 in an effort to make research and resources more available to Utah couples, Reese said. An online marriage education class is even offered.
Reese hopes that this study will spur other states to conduct studies of their own.
“Then we can compare. Anytime you do a study, there has to be follow up,” she said.
-bnelson@cc.usu.edu