Friday, February 27, 1976
13
Marriage still viable, profs say
Staff Writer
By JANET SCHMIDT
Despite a recent increase in the divorce rate and changing attitudes toward marriage, some Lawrence and University of Kansas marriage and family counselors agree that marriage still has a vital and functional role in society today.
Data given by the Kansas State Department of Health and Environment show that, while the local and national figures for divorces and annulments have doubled over the past 10 years, the number of marriages has remained relatively stable.
DATA FOR Kansas and the nation show that, although the number of marriages slightly increased from 1963 to 1974, the number of divorces doubled.
Despite this sharp contrast between the increases in divorce and marriage rates, Ewen notes that "the gap between student mental health clinic, said, "The growing divorce rate does not necessarily correspond to the amount of married couples with children."[1] The ceptability of divorce as an alternative.[2]
In 1985, the number of marriages in Douglas County was 456, or 12.7 for every 1,000 persons. In 1974, the number was 637, or 11.4 for every 1,000.
In 1965 the divorce rate for the county was 2.6 for one,100 persons, or 92 divorces. In 1974 that rate more than doubled to 5.3 for every 1,000, or 296 divorces.
Dennis Karpowitz, assistant professor of psychology and director of the psychological clinic at KU, said, "The new program as an institution is declining in a myth."
"Women's liberation has definitely had an impact," he said.
THE INCREASING divorce rate, he said, indicates a change in expectations concerning marriage.
Karpowitz said more people, especially women, expected better and more equal treatment.
"The fact that people expect and seek equality in a marriage means that marriage is still the most viable alternative," he said.
Karpowitz said that among the factors affecting the divorce rate was a decrease in the general population's reliance on religious institutions, such as churches, for moral guidance.
"These organizations no longer have the impact they used to," he said.
THE DECREASE in the number of couples having children has also affected the divorce rate because divorce is more difficult when children are involved, he said.
"A solution is now available to people as the working class, that was not before."
divorce had become more accessible and affordable.
Stan Sterling, social worker with Counseling Associates, a lawrence counseling firm in Boston.
Katz said that, although divorce had become more acceptable as a solution to marital difficulties, the number of people living at KU also seemed to be increasing.
"About 20 per cent of the requests for therapy at the student mental health clinic are from students seeking marital therapy," she said.
"WHILE WE have no way of knowing what percentage of the people who come to the clinic represent the total community of married couples on campus," she said, "there does seem to a heightened awareness of this particular service at our clinic."
Katz said some of the reasons for the increase were the increase in KU enrollment, a greater awareness that children are more loved and a greater acceptance of therapy.
"There is no longer the negative feeling about going to ask for help," she said.
Katz said the function of marital marriage wasn't only to prevent marriages from
"The struggle in dealing with one's own desire for self-fulfillment and the need to fulfill it"
"THE COUPLE finds it difficult to express their changing needs and concerns with each other. Frustration, pain and intolerance mount."
breaking up, but to help couples who were going through separations or divorces.
University Daily Kansan
"Partners feel trapped and bogged down by the overwhelming demands that they experience during this critical stage of life," she said.
Katz said that such factors as the increasing cost of living, the shrinking professional job market, the postponement of having children and financial dependency on parents aggravated already-existing conflicts.
"The goal of marital therapy as we practice it is to help both partners become aware of the intrapysche conflict that get played out in the relationship." Katz said.
Katz said that anxieties related to academic pressures were sometimes made up of stress.
"THIS MEANS that the couple explore the roots of their conflicts, as they originated during earlier periods of their lives."
Dennis Dalley, associate professor of social welfare and social worker with Counseling Associates, said that communication was important in a marriage and that understanding the way a couple communicated with each other was important in helping them solve their marital problems.
"Communication involves both the implicit and the explicit—the verbal and the nonverbal."
Each time this double-bind occurs, the couple becomes more confused about what each expects from the other, and soon haveulty working out problems together, he said.
Some of the marital problems he works with center on double-bind communication, which a person says one thing but which another with other facial expressions, he said.
Dailey said he assisted couples by focusing their attention on the way they communicate and helping them to make it more effective.
FOR EXAMPLE, the husband asks his wife whether he can go out with the boys and she says "yes," but is frowning when she says it, he said.
See MARRIAGE page 14
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