From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!seismo!rocheste!neal
Newsgroups: net.singles
Title: Single lifestyle losing its stigma, researchers say
Article-I.D.: rocheste.346
Posted: Thu Dec 23 21:48:20 1982
Received: Mon Dec 27 02:09:18 1982

>From the Rochester Times Union, Thursday, December 23, 1982

SINGLE LIFESTYLE LOSING ITS STIGMA, RESEARCHERS SAY
United Press International

NEW YORK - Americans who once viewed marriage as the only acceptable way of
life have changed their opinion during the past 20 years and no longer place
a stigma on people who are single, a study shows.
	Social scientists at the University of Michigan said findings of their
research suggest young single people in America no longer will be pressured by
their parents into marriage.
	Arland Thornton and Deborah Freedman said that marks a shift over the
last 20 years in the way the single lifestyle has been perceived in America.
	There also is a widespread desire not to permit marriage to interfere
with education and work plans, the report said.
	Thornton is senior study director at the school's Institute for Social
Research at Ann Arbor.  Freedman is assistant professor of Economics and
Research Associate at the university's Population Studies Center.
	They said young people opting to stay single gain support from parents
who no longer regard getting married as necessarily better than remaining
single.
	Young people and their parents do not look down on those who elect not
to marry, marking a distinct shift in attitude from that held by Americans in
the past, the researchers said.
	The report is based on an analysis of the 1980 Study of American
Families, an 18-year inter-generational study of 916 families in the Detroit
area, plus data from several national studies.
	It was published in \Family Planning Perspectives/, journal of the
Alan Guttmacher Institute, affiliate of the Planned Parenthood Federation of
America.

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