Aspects of ex-nuptiality in New Zealand : toward a social demography of marriage and the family since the second world war

Abstract

Traditionally in most Western countries religiously based social norms have held that sexual activity should be engaged in only within formally celebrated marital unions, which in turn should be regarded as lifelong. Nowhere have these norms ever been universally adhered to, especially by men, but in the last two to three decades they have been rejected on an unprecedented scale. Rising levels of nonmarital pregnancy, marital breakdown, and, more recently, informal cohabitation have been held in some quarters to greatly endanger the institutions of marriage and the family. Recognising the ease with which they can be misinterpreted, this thesis provides a comprehensive analysis of socio-demographic data pertaining to changing patterns of nonmarital sexual behaviour and changing attitudes to marriage and the family in New Zealand since the Second World War. Trends in nonmarital (and in particular premarital) pregnancy and childbearing, marriage and coresidence at marriage, and divorce are examined in detail. The study also explores changes in the pattern of placement of children born ex-nuptially, some of the personal consequences of childbearing following ex-nuptial conception, factors associated with divorce, and trends in the involvement of children in divorce. The drawing together of these phenomena within a single conceptual framework emphasises their joint reflection of forces for social change which have been operating in New Zealand. The evolutionary character of social change is stressed at several points. The wresting of control over courtship, mate selection, and the decision when to marry from parents by young people of the affluent 1950s is seen as having in many ways initiated the process. Among the forces recognised as having built on this foundation are the assumption of further generational independence by the young, pressure for, and achievement of, greater equality and independence by women, major improvements in women’s ability to control their fertility, and arisng out of these things a much more individualistic central set of values. Evidence presented suggests that by the latter half of the 1970s the more permissive sexual morality which successive youth cohorts have developed had acquired a certain maturity. It was being practised more openly and with greater ideological conviction. It was also leading less frequently to unplanned parenthood and early marriage. Indeed marriage was generally being approached much more cautiously, and had possibly been rejected altogether in some quarters. The former tendency may augur well for marital stability in the future, and due allowance must be made for the fact that recent instability has been partly the product of a unique, and temporary, combination of circumstances. On the other hand values and priorities which have assumed increased importance in domestic relations have in the process rendered marriage and the family inherently more fragile institutions.