The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family in America Today - by Andrew J. Cherlin

The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family in America Today. Andrew J. Cherlin. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 2009. 271 pp. ISBN 9780307266897. $25.95 (cloth). As Andrew Cherlin points out in his most recent book, marriage in the United States differs in fundamental ways from marriage in other Western countries. On the one hand, most Americans strongly support marriage and bestow a considerable degree of symbolic value on it. Correspondingly, most people marry, marry relatively early, and remarry if their first marriages end in divorce. On the other hand, most Americans embrace the tenets of expressive individualism: the belief that people have a right - perhaps an obligation - to seek personal happiness and psychological growth. As a result, large numbers of Americans divorce every year because they do not feel fulfilled in their marriages. Because of these two contrary cultural models, people in the United States form partnerships, split up, and repartner more often than just about anywhere else. Curiously, this pattern - a high rate of union formation combined with a high rate of union dissolution - appears to have existed throughout American history, albeit not as sharply as in the present era. Although earlier observers have commented on the unique features of American marriage, no other writer has developed these ideas as clearly and comprehensively as Cherlin has. Cherlin argues that cultural support for marriage is related to. the central role of religion in American life. Religion is taken more seriously in the United States than in most Western societies, as reflected in attendance at religious services and the widely shared conviction that religion should play a central role in everyday life. Religious influence had its origin partly in early colonial life, when many immigrants (who viewed marriage as the cornerstone of society) came to the United States to escape religious persecution in Europe. More important, because a single religious tradition does not dominate in the United States (in contrast to many European countries), Americans are able to seek out religions that best meet their personal needs in an open marketplace of beliefs and practices. Because most religions value and support marriage, most Americans have accepted marriage as a central feature of life. The flip side of the coin is American individualism. This cultural element was originally manifested in utilitarian individualism - the beliefs that people can succeed through hard work; should seek their own solutions to problems without the assistance of the federal government; and in a frontier society, should go west to seek their fortunes. The more recent manifestation of this cultural element is expressive individualism - the belief that people should seek personal growth and emotional fulfillment through their jobs and social relationships, including marriage. The American way of marriage may be unique, but does that matter? From an adult perspective, it is not clear whether frequent turnover in intimate relationships is good or bad. Although some adults may suffer from the strains of repeated relationship instability, other adults may benefit from opportunities to keep trying until the right marriage partner comes along. Cherlin argues that we should be concerned, however, because relationship instability is not good for most children. Having to adjust to parents (and parents' partners) moving in and out of the household is stressful for children and increases the risk of emotional and behavioral problems. Of course, research on divorce suggests that children benefit, in the long run, when marital dissolution removes them from highconflict homes in which parents have overtly hostile relationships (Amato, Loomis, & Booth, 1995). Correspondingly, when parents remarry after divorce (or marry for the first time after a disrupted cohabiting union), some children develop close relationships with stepparents and benefit from the presence of a supportive parent figure in the household (Hetherington, 2006). …