marriage has dropped sharply since 1990, and more now cite the sharing of household chores as pivotal, according to a sweeping new survey.
The Pew Research Center survey on marriage and parenting found that children had fallen to eighth out of nine on a list of factors that people associate with successful marriages - well behind "sharing household chores," "good housing," "adequate income," a "happy sexual relationship" and "faithfulness."
In a 1990 World Values Survey, children ranked third in importance among the same items, with 65 percent saying children were very important to a good marriage. Just 41 percent said so in the new Pew survey.
Chore-sharing was cited as very important by 62 percent of respondents, up from 47 percent in 1990.
The survey also found that, more Americans say the main purpose of marriage is the "mutual happiness and fulfillment" of adults rather than the "bearing and raising of children."
The survey's findings buttress concerns expressed by numerous scholars and family-policy experts, among them Barbara Dafoe Whitehead of Rutgers University's National Marriage Project.
"The popular culture is increasingly oriented to fulfilling the desires of adults," she wrote in a recent report. "Child-rearing values - sacrifice, stability, dependability, maturity - seem stale and musty by comparison."
Virginia Rutter, a sociology professor at Framingham (Mass.) State College and board member of the Council on Contemporary Families, said the shifting views may be linked in part to America's relative lack of family-friendly workplace policies such as paid leave and subsidized child care.
"If we value families ... we need to change the circumstances they live in," she said, citing the challenges faced by young, two-earner couples as they ponder having children.
The Pew survey was conducted by telephone from mid-February through mid-March among a random, nationwide sample of 2,020 adults.
一项大规模的最新调查显示，美国人中认为孩子对于美好婚姻“十分重要”的比例自上世纪90年代以来急剧下降，如今更多的美国人认为分担家务才是美好婚姻的关键。
美国皮尤调查中心此项有关婚姻和育儿的调查发现，在人们列举的与美好婚姻有关的九大因素中，“孩子”下滑至第八位，位居“分担家务”、“住房条件好”、“收入富足”、“性生活愉快”及“忠诚”几大因素之后。
在1990年的“世界价值观调查”中，“孩子”在以上几个因素中排名第三，65%的美国人认为孩子对于美好婚姻十分重要。而在此项最新的皮尤调查中，只有41%持相同观点。
62%的受访者认为“分担家务”十分重要，超过了1990年的47%。
另外，调查还发现，更多的美国人认为婚姻的主要目的是两人之间的“相互愉悦与满足”，而不是“养育孩子”。
该调查的结果造成了很多学者和家庭政策专家们的担忧，鲁特格斯大学国家婚姻项目的芭芭拉·达佛·怀特黑德就是其中一位。
她在最近的一篇报告中写道：“大众文化正日益以满足成年人的欲望为导向。而牺牲、稳定、可靠及成熟等育儿的价值观似乎已经过时了。”
弗莱明翰州立大学的社会学教授、当代家庭研究会的理事会成员弗吉妮亚·鲁特称，这种观念的转变一部分可能与美国缺少如带薪假期及子女津贴等关心员工家庭的政策有关。
她在谈及年轻的上班族夫妇在考虑要孩子时所面临的挑战时说：“如果我们重视家庭……我们就应该改变他们生活的环境。”
此项随机电话调查从今年2月中旬持续至三月中旬，全美共有2020名成年人参加。 |
