Sociology Essay-美國的高再婚率

 

婚姻是每個(gè)公民的基本權(quán)利，離婚也是一個(gè)基本的權(quán)利。現(xiàn)在，離婚是美國最嚴(yán)重的社會(huì)問題之一。一項(xiàng)調(diào)查表明，離婚率不斷增長，目前超過一半的人離婚，而再婚率逐漸上升。從這一現(xiàn)象中，它表明了什么？本文將從美國高再婚率著手并將分析歷史，造成這種現(xiàn)象的社會(huì)和文化因素。之后，它將簡要的介紹高再婚率對(duì)美國兒童影響。

 

關(guān)鍵字：再婚率；原因；影響

 

簡介

 

最近幾年，美國的皮尤研究中心一項(xiàng)調(diào)查顯示，44%的30歲以下美國人認(rèn)為婚姻是過時(shí)的，但這并不意味著美國人對(duì)婚姻失去信心。根據(jù)美國2010次人口普查數(shù)據(jù)，大約70%的美國人至少離婚一次。社會(huì)學(xué)家認(rèn)為，美國的離婚率和再婚率是世界上最高的。

 

隨著社會(huì)的不斷發(fā)展，現(xiàn)代婚姻價(jià)值觀的變化是多方面的。價(jià)值觀決定了人們對(duì)環(huán)境的態(tài)度和行為，對(duì)美國的價(jià)值觀來說，這是一種不同文化的融合。它強(qiáng)調(diào)了個(gè)人主義的重要性。美國人有更多的時(shí)間和金錢來專注于實(shí)現(xiàn)個(gè)人價(jià)值。”在婚姻生活中，創(chuàng)造個(gè)人空間，使個(gè)人成長，成為美國人的一個(gè)越來越普遍的趨勢(shì)。因?yàn)閷?duì)婚姻的特殊價(jià)值，成為導(dǎo)致離婚再婚在美國最大的原因。

 

基于一些英文書籍和報(bào)告，著重分析再婚的原因和影響。

 

High Remarriage Rate In America Sociology Essay

 

Marriage is a basic right for every citizen, and so is the divorce. Nowadays, divorce is one of the most serious social problems in American. A survey indicates that the divorce rate is constantly growing and in present it is too high to pass 50% but following that the remarriage rate rises gradually. What does it indicate from this phenomenon and what're the causes? This paper will start with the high remarriage rate in America and will proceed to analyze historical, social and cultural factors that cause this phenomenon. After that, it will introduce the effect of high remarriage rate on children briefly in America.

 

Key words: remarriage rate; causes; effects

 

Introduction

 

In recent years, Pew Research Centre study in America has published one survey which demonstrates that 44% of Americans under the age of 30 think marriage is outdated, but it does not mean Americans have lose confidence in marriage. According to 2010 American census data, about 70% of Americans has at least divorced once. The sociologists hold the idea that American divorce rate and remarriage rate are the highest in the world.

 

With the continuous development of society, the changes of modern marriage values are omnifarious. Values decide people's attitudes and actions towards their environment, and for American values, it is a integration of different cultures. It emphasizes the importance of individualism. Americans have more time and money to focus on realizing personal value. "Creating a personal space and making personal growth still exist in marriage life" becomes a more and more popular tendency among Americans. Because of the special value towards marriage, divorce becomes the biggest reason that causes remarriage in America.

 

Based on some English and Chinese books and reports, this paper focuses on the the analysis of remarriage: its causes and effects.

 

高再婚率的原因-2.The reasons that cause high remarriage rate

 

2.1.High divorce rate

 

2.1.1.The effect of political sense

 

The separation of the executive, legislative and judicial powers is the basic political system of America. To a large extent, practicing the separation of powers system can safeguard and preserve individual rights, at the same time, it can make the national decision-making more democratic. Individual language privilege is approved by government and government provide a fair and impartial environment for the whole society. Beyond that, there are strict law and legislation to protect people's right. Even by mid 1980s, all the 50 states in US had put "no fault divorce statues" into practice so that divorce can be awarded on consensus of the spouses.

 

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." (Thomas Jefferson. the Declaration of Independencen 1776). This is the most famous sentences which most heavily affects Americans' thoughts. For American society, everyone pay much attention on the personal development since ancient times. They admire the person like President Abraham Lincoln who can rely on himself to get great accomplishment, and when Americans are young, they are educated to be a independent person, no matter how poor or rich, they have the same attitude that you must learn how to live by yourself. So it is not strange to notice that many American children work in restaurants or somewhere in spare time.Consequently, there are many Americans who get divorced. When confronted the divorce, Chinese will feel embarrassed, disappointed, ashamed, and even lose confidence to love again. But for Americans, though they think marriage is not an indispensable part of life, so that's one reason of the high divorce rate.

 

2.1.2.Individualism

 

Because of American special historical and cultural background, Americans' value have three significant features: independence, equality and freedom. The most prominent feature is independent and equal. This value is not only traced to the same origin with individualism but also closely connected to it. Individualism is generally approved by Americans and it affects Americans a lot. Ralph Waldo Emerson, (1803-1882) who is called the father of American civilization formed individualism through transcendentalism. He emphasized personality, self-improvement and self-reliance. His individualism set a solid foundation for American individual value and affected the process of American cultural thoughts.

 

As we all know, America is called a melting pot of many races and it is a typical nation of immigrants. Immigrants with their own dreams traveled across oceans to pursue a better life, founded on freedom, equality and opportunity. It is no exaggeration to say that immigrants have changed America and influences its cultural values a lot.

 

During the process of establishing North America, many Puritans settled in the colony and brought their value with them at the same time. Puritans advocated liberal democracy republic. Their liberalism have a great influence on American individualism. For the early immigrants, they longed for the reunion of the family, but these efforts didn't work at last. Then they began getting used to living away from families. The instability of immigrant families and brutal environments leaded to bad health effects and shorter life. There was almost no such thing that families with three generations living together. Based on the issues discussed above, everyone had to learn to be live by themselves and be independent.

 

2.1.3.The changes of gender roles

 

One factor is that American females' status advances Because of more opportunities. They have chance to make money, meanwhile, they have the self-awareness to get the equal rights and it will help them to reduce their dependence on males and families, which makes females have more choices to marriage. The other one is that the extinction of marital cohesion because of believe in gender equality .In American's character, equality plays a significant role. The realization of being equal is deep in American's heart. Compared with Chinese people, they have less ability to tolerate the partner. They never oppress their affection. They know it very clear that as an individual, they have rights to gain equality, even in spiritual or marital. They would not to bear in marriage. So divorce is more widely accepted.

 

2.1.4.The effect of family systems

 

Complementarity in family becomes less and less. One of the symbols that a society come to industrial age from preindustrial age is the change of family systems. With the development of society, family is not a system that only can offer economic security, education for people any more. And complementarity in family becomes less and less. Society weakens or replaces many functions which was supposed to belong to family's and makes people stop relying on it. Because of this, the importance of family relatively weakens. With the result that marriage rate decreases and divorce rate rises.

 

2.2.Expectations for the marriage

 

About half of Americans' marriage end up with divorce, but optimistic Americans never fear frustrations: 70% of Americans has at least divorced once. Experts of S. census bureau Carlo vita analyzed: We pursue successful marriage, maybe people in other cultures are more tolerant of marriage, but our expectations are so high that if feeling uncomfortable, then we'd like to separate as soon as possible and move on to remarriage. She also said that influenced by movies and advertisements, They pay more attention on the romance in marriage, they have higher expectation of the quality of their life. American social anthropologist David Murray pointed that Americans consider marriage to be "choice for personal happiness". Compared to Americans, the choice of peoples who live in other more traditional countries correlates with a set of specific social and economic factors. American females' economic is independent and they are brave enough to give up an unhappy marriage, even for the females whose economic rely on males or families would like to choose divorce because they can have quite a number of family assets after divorce. The author Samuel Johnson have said a that"remarriage is the triumph of hope over experience". With coming of modern society, the demand of love becomes more and more prominent and important for people. In addition to satisfy material life, people also pursue for satisfying emotional life. Once Americans feel dissatisfied for their marriage, instead of trying their best to protect it, they choose dissolve their marriage and seek for another relationship. In their minds, they prefer to treat this new relationship as a base which can comfort a heart that was hurt by last bad marriage and a place where they can enjoy his happy and satisfying life.

 

2.3.Religious effect on remarriage

 

The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him".(the Old Testament, Genesis 2:18) Then God took a rib from Adam when he was asleep one night. From Adam's rib, God made Eve to live with him. This is the beginning of human marriage. Religion is one of the most important cultural factors in humans' lives, which is related to social life and mental structure.

 

In America, influenced by Christianity, people think marriage is determined by God and it's sacred and solemn. It's an eternal promise between husbands and wives. The authority and sacredness of marriage is unshakable in Christians' minds. Fulfilling marriage equals to submitting God's commandments. In their opinions, marriage is a gift given by God, and every marriage is unique and has special meaning and aim. They experience God's love and mysteries of life through marriage. So since ancient times, marriage is respected and desired by Americans. In some cases, because of virous reasons they have to get divorce, but it can't stop them pursuing for marriage.

 

高再婚率的影響-3. The effects of high remarriage rate in America

 

3.1.On children's view of marriage

 

Nowadays, remarriage is a common phenomenon. The formation of members of stepfamilies is very complex. Maybe both of the couple will bring children from last marriage and the atmosphere between stepfamily's members may be embarrassing or antipathetic. No matter for husband or wife, the foundation of stepfamilies is neither easy nor simple. As for children, they are involved in this situation and most of them will feel passive and helpless. Children living in remarriage family need time to adopt and sometimes this process turn to be suffering for them. So there is a big problem putting before the new family: How to educate children? As parents use different methods to educate children, children will have different views of marriage.

 

As stepmother or stepfather, they tend to get closer to their mate or deepen the couple's feelings through caring each other's children. They treat each other's children as their own and help children step out from the shadows of family breakdown. They give time to children adapt their new family and new lifestyles. Children like copying parents' behaviour. If parents' relationship is harmony and happy, and they care for each other and help each other. Many smallest actions of caring will let children feel the warmth of the family. Children will feel love in family life then they will set up correct attitude to the love and marriage and will be full of longing for marriage. After they grow up, they will face marriage correctly, learn to how to make the marriage work and how to shoulder the responsibility to family.

 

But if stepmother or stepfather just care about their own children and ignore their stepchildren. The relationships between members of a family will be disharmony afterwards, then stepparents will quarrel with each other because of children and after that family squabbles will be expanding. New family crisis will come out.Because of squabbles happened in new family, children will compare the life in new family with life in old family. And children don't get corresponding love and concern in both of families, so they tend to protected themselves from life's difficulties and develop a poor attitude towards marriage or even hate marriage, what's worse, this negative attitude to marriage will affect their lives in the future and children's marriage will be not satisfying.

 

3.2.On children's mentality

 

The biggest effect is making children insecure, timid, negative and isolated. Most children in stepfamilies are sensitive, suspicious and negative. Parents' remarriage have plenty of effects on children. On one hand, remarriage is to search extrication and pursuit new life for parents because of incompatibility, but on the other hand, the children in remarried families have great difference with the ones in complete families in physical and mental development. Before divorce, children have experienced yelling, dissatisfaction and distrust between parents. After living in this environment for a long time, children will see the bad side of society and think life is so rough. They tent to lose confidence over time and produce negative psychology, so it is so common that stepchild is isolated by other people and it's difficult for them to live in harmony with others. In fact, many of the stepchildren feel contradictory when facing parents. On one hand, they hate parents' divorce, on the other hand, they desire to get some attention from parents through doing some rash things. Stepchildren's physical and mental development is not only the issue of the family, but also the issue of school and society. The whole society should pay more attention on them and make them gid rid of the negative effects from parents' divorce in essence.

 

對(duì)繼父母的建議-Suggestions to stepparents

 

It needs courage and patience for people to develop a new relationship or excavate new interest. What's more, they should make sure that they are willing to do it and try their best to deal with changes around them. After a few years of active reconstruction.they can adopt new life. No matter how complex remarriage makes family relationship, no matter how many conflicts and crisis they will face after remarrying, when meeting the one you love, you will still choose remarry, because marriage is so seductive and expected for people. As for the problems stepparents will meet. There are several suggestions: Firstly,you should learn to really respect and accept previous husband or wife and other family members. No matter what attitude the stepchildren towards their parents, you can't judge children's parents for catering to them.In fact they love their parents best deep in their hearts. Secondly: placing yourselves into a correct position. Don't force children to call you "Mom" or "Dad" even you know they like you very much. If possible, telling them you want to take care of them and make children believe that you don't want to replace their own parents. Thirdly: Don't dispute husband's or wife's love with stepchildren. It's not wise to express intimate relations with husband or wife when you get along with stepchildren. You think what you do is very normal but for stepchildren, they think you are showing off how happy you are with their father of mother. After leaving parents, children have felt left out and upset. If you just immerse yourself in the second marriage,You have been making the trouble from bad to worse. Finally: Suggesting stepchildren to visit parents if they have time. By this way, you can provide personal space for children and yourselves. What's more, don't lavish too much love on children and keep distance with them. Stepparents can't always satisfy all of children's requests without limit. In addition, no matter in what kind of families, the most efficient ways to solve family issues is to communicate as much as you can.

 

結(jié)論-Conclusion

 

America, the most powerful country in the world, is faced with the phenomenon of high remarriage rate. Whether on the social aspect or the spiritual aspect, marriage is not an essential part in people's lives, but yet for all that, Americans still desire to get married. The high remarriage rate not only shows Americans' desire for marriage,but also reveals Americans' distinctive values for marriage. High remarriage rate is the result of a gambling among many potent forces, due to the effect of political sense, high divorce rate, expectations for remarriage and religious effect, high remarriage rate becomes an inevitable trend in America, at the same time, the number of stepfamilies has been rising too. People shift from one marriage to another. Relationships in stepfamilies can be complicated, but it's possible to build a successful blended family with families' joint effort.

 

There is no more lovely, friendly and charming relationship, communion or company than a good marriage. Everyone has the right to pursue his or her own happiness. So remarriage becomes a good choice for most people who get divorce in America.