A question by Christian at Smaller Manhattans got me to thinking and digging around a bit. Here’s what I found: an interview with Andrew J. Cherlin, author of The Marriage Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family in America Today (Random House, April 14, 2009). Although I’ve not read the book, Cherlin’s answer to why he believes Americans have more long-term partnerships than other western world-dwellers is intriguing. Says Cherlin,
I think the reason is the nature of American culture, which is unlike the culture of any other country when it comes to marriage and personal life. Americans believe in two contradictory ideals. The first is the importance of marriage: we are more marriage-oriented than most other Western countries. The second is the importance of living a personally fulfilling life that allows us to grow and develop as individuals—call it individualism. Now, you can find other countries that place a high value on marriage, such as Italy where most children are born to married couples and there are fewer cohabiting relationships. And you can find countries that place a high value on individualism, such as Sweden. But only in the United States do you find both. So we marry in large numbers—we have a higher marriage rate than most countries. But we evaluate our marriages according to how personally fulfilling we find them. And if we find them lacking, we are more likely to end them. Then, because it’s so important to be partnered, we move in with someone else, and the cycle starts all over again.
