Deseret News: The rise of ‘marriage deserts’ and what we can do about them
In this piece for Deseret News published July 28, 2024, report authors Bradford Wilcox and Chris Bullivant reveal the pervasiveness of marriage deserts across the US and the conditions for how these deserts form. The solutions they provide to irrigate these deserts lie in a more robust social capital of connectedness to one’s communities:
“Marriage deserts are by nature isolated and cut off from a pipeline of role models.”
“What makes a marriage succeed or fail?
To answer this question, psychologist John Gottman set up what came to be known as the “Love Lab” at the University of Washington in Seattle. Couples were invited to spend a weekend in a plush apartment with scenic views as Gottman and his team monitored their body language, conversations, blood pressure and even cortisol levels to figure out what makes for good marriages versus failed ones.
By monitoring hundreds of couples, Gottman discovered that certain behavioral patterns — like having at least five positive interactions for each negative interaction in the midst of a conflict — were linked to successful marriages, whereas patterns of regular defensiveness or criticism led to marital defeat.
Gottman’s research and the popular relationship advice books it generated (like “The Relationship Cure: A 5-Step Guide to Strengthening Your Marriage, Family, and Friendships”) is valuable, but does not explain why successful marriages are more likely to be found in some communities rather than in others.
As one of us (Brad Wilcox) asked in his book, “Get Married”:
“Why is it, for instance, that a neighborhood adjacent to Gottman’s Love Lab, the picture-perfect Laurelhurst community alongside Lake Washington in Seattle, has some of the strongest families in the nation, with nearly 90% headed by two parents? By contrast, why is it that a Seattle neighborhood just several miles south of the Love Lab, South Park, is dominated by single parents?”
These are more sociological questions and part of the answer to them is that some communities, like Laurelhurst, are populated by men and women who have lots of experience living in families and social networks where marriage is the norm.
In contrast, there are plenty of people in communities like South Park where men and women have little experience with marriage.
In fact, in recent decades, America has witnessed the rise of what could be called “marriage deserts”: entire neighborhoods where there are persistently low rates of marriage. These stand in contrast to other neighborhoods where stable married families are the norm.
Why do some neighborhoods support marriages while others don’t?”
Full the full article continue on at Deseret News
“Family Stability - Bridging America’s Social Capital Divide”
By Brad Wilcox, Chris Bullivant, Peyton Roth
May 2022
