Demographers note that there has been a steady increase in the number of single adults in the U.S., attributable to the influence of several social factors.

Waiting Longer Before Marrying:

Average age at 1st Marriage

Decade	Males	Females	Increase in Age at 1st Marriage
1960	23.9	19.9	+4 years
1990	25.2	22.5	+3 years

This means there are more unmarried adults in the population between the ages of 20 and 25 years of age.
-The Divorce Rate has steadily risen since the end of World War II. At that time the rate of divorce was about 20%. The rate of divorce rose to an all time high of just over 52% in the mid-1980s when it leveled off (and perhaps dropped a bit). This means there are more divorced, unremarried adults in the population.

The Marriage Squeeze refers to the availability of marriable men in the population as women get older. As women move into their early twenties, the number of marriable men in their age group (usually about 3 years older on average) is roughly equal to the number of women.
As women move into their late twenties/early thirties, that number drops to about 100 women for every 97 men. Mid-to-late 30s, the ratio is about 100 to 90, and early 40s the ratio is about 100 to 85-87. Some note that the quality of the marriage pool of eligibles also drops over the lifespan, with the best ones (most likely to be the kind who will stay married) getting married early on. As my friend C.J. once said, my 85 choices are the culls!

The reason for the squeeze has to do with the way men and women remarry - women tend to want to remarry someone about 3-6 years older than themselves, while men tend to want to remarry the increasingly younger women.

There is also less social pressure to marry before becoming sexually active. Once perhaps the main reasons to marry - to have children and to have a more socially approved sexual outlet - sex is much less important as a reason to marry today. The traditional sequence of relationship development was:

dating - talking - kissing - love - engagement - marriage - sex - baby

today ------ dating - talking - kissing - love - baby - breakup then ---

dating - talking - kissing - love - baby - engagement - breakup dating - talking - kissing - love - baby - engagement - marriage - divorce

The Women's Movement has enlightened women in some segments, especially regarding the necessity of education and attainment of some measure of job security. Thus, for women who are encouraged in school, marriage will be pushed farther into the future. Additionally, more education and higher income employment actually makes marriage more difficult to attain for women (my 85 wasn't attractive, smart or rich enough to get married the first time around!).

Finally, there are growing doubts about the institution of marriage in general. The social fabric - which served to place young people together, encourage them in their marital choices, and nurture new marriages through initial years - has suffered neglect.
Having less primary group support for the enterprise of marriage, young people make it up as they go, often making mistakes that are fatal to the marriage. Thus, their children tend to see marriage as a crap-shoot.

1. Career Comes First - actually a good, safe attitude.
2. Perceived Chances for Sex with Wide Variety of Partners
3. Desire to Maintain Personal Freedom
4. Desire for Continued Personal Growth
5. Increased Social Conditions Precluding Early Marriage

Who are the Singles?

6. Never Married Singles - Youngest Group 25 million men 20 million women
7. Separated & Divorced - The Midlife Group. 18 million total
8. Widowed Singles - The Oldest Group. Women outnumber men 5 to 1

11.2 million women 2.1 million men. 3

1. Higher I.Q.'s
2. More Education
3. More Prestigious Occupations
4. Higher Incomes
5. Better Mental Health / Well Being
6. These are women actively choosing singlehood over marriage.

Stereotyping Single Adults:

Sex and the Single Person
(AIDS has put a damper on some of the random access sexual activity of the 1970's.)

• Sex with Successive Partners - the average number of sex partners for women was 2 to 10 for readers of Cosmopolitan Magazine.
• Sex without Intimacy - the dominate value in our society seems to tend toward sex with affection (love or something like it).
• Booby Traps Awaiting Singles:
• 1. Sexual Exploitation - Pressure to have sex as the price of another date - Recently divorced, and others whose self-esteem is a little on the low side.
• 2. Date Rape - Between 20% and 30% of all college students (even some men) have reported forceful attempts made on them to perform sexually.
• 3. The Married Man Gambit

Cohabitation: Living Together

Ways of Viewing Cohabitation:

• Replacement of traditional courtship
• Trial Marriage
• Alternative to marriage.

There is little to suggest that cohabitors are any more likely to marry each other than are couples who stick to the traditional premarital sex, long term, living apart dating/engagement routine.

Types of Cohabiting Relationships

• Linus blanket - security needs
• Emancipation - feeling adult
• Convenience - cheaper, handier to live together

1. Greater sexual satisfaction, more self-disclosure, and more intense feelings of intimacy.
2. Greater opportunity to understand and evaluate self - and other person.
3. Opportunity to test the other person in all kinds of situations.
4. A higher standard of living, resulting from the pooling of resources.

1. Premature limiting of the dating experience - a big deal.
2. Perpetuation of the traditional wife role
3. Unequal emotional involvement -
4. Change in social life and reduction in friends
5. legal complications.

1. College students seem to approve of cohabitation outside of marriage, in principle anyways.
2. Two factors that statistically predict positive attitudes about cohabitation are LOW RELIGIOSITY and HIGH SELF-ESTEEM..
3. Most couples who cohabit do not enter into the activity without fairly careful consideration.

The factors affecting the degree to which an individual experiences or perceives the opportunity to cohabit:

1. Environmental opportunity (pool of eligibles)
2. Sociocultural norms within the immediate environment
3. Isolation from conventional social control agents
4. Interpersonal attractiveness

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