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Study on Number of Non-Marital Partners & Marriage Stability

Y

ylop

Member
Real Person*
THE HARMFUL EFFECTS OF EARLY SEXUAL ACTIVITY AND MULTIPLE SEXUAL PARTNERS AMONG WOMEN: A BOOK OF CHARTS

sounds misogynistic and the capitals don't help, however it is an interesting study published by the Heritage Foundation in 2003 and over 10,000 women were surveyed - you can read it here: http://s3.amazonaws.com/thf_media/2003/pdf/Bookofcharts.pdf.

"Women Who Have More Non-Marital Sexual Partners Are Less Likely to Have Stable Marriages" (Chart 15) is an interesting one. The likelihood of a stable marriage plummets with every non-marital partner over zero - yes every additional partner lowers the odds of a successful marriage. The survey starts with 80% probability of a stable marriage with the women having zero non-marital partners, 53% for one partner, 43% for two and so on.

Comments, feedback, criticisms etc?

ylop

PS I imagine around half of our members would like to see a similar study on men!
 
Re: Study on Number of Non-Marital Partners & Marriage Stabi

Interesting data. In reading that I wonder numerous things that I'll have to ponder for a while. I'll maybe post my thoughts later after taking some time to digest the material.
 
Re: Study on Number of Non-Marital Partners & Marriage Stabi

God really DID create us for fidelity, didn't He!?
 
Re: Study on Number of Non-Marital Partners & Marriage Stabi

My first thoughts after just glancing through some of the charts:

The age-of-consent should be raised to 21, not lowered to 13 or 14 like the left-wing pinko-commie anti-christian liberals want to do. Having sex with someone underage should be punishable by castration. :o

Actually, under Mosaic law, while the penalty for seducing a married woman was death, the penalty for seducing (or raping?) an unbetrothed virgin was life:
Deuteronomy 22:28-29 NKJV (28) "If a man finds a young woman who is a virgin, who is not betrothed, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are found out, (29) then the man who lay with her shall give to the young woman's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife because he has humbled her; he shall not be permitted to divorce her all his days.
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(Would the the judge bang his gavel and say, "50 shekels and the shackles?" :lol: )

Our Creator gave us laws to protect us from ourselves. Our society has ignored those laws and we are paying the price.

Like Dr. Allen, I will probably have more to say after studying the charts.
 
Re: Study on Number of Non-Marital Partners & Marriage Stabi

I like the idea of raising the age of consent to 21 for everything. Who is wanting to lower it? When I was in India a few years ago the legal drinking age was posted as being 25. That sounds good to me too.
 
Re: Study on Number of Non-Marital Partners & Marriage Stabi

This is off the top of my head, my research notes are somewhere in the mess inside my hard drive...and of course, I'm in a hurry to get to an appointment right now.
Who is wanting to lower it?
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It's already done in a few states.

The first few states to "legalize" same-sex marriage also lowered the age of consent to 13 for girls, 14 for boys, and 16 for same-sex couples. Seems like it was Maine that first did so, but my memory might be wrong on that.

In my Father's Book, that makes the state legislatures guilty of child molesting, child porn, sodomy, and other abominations.

When I dig my notes out of the clutter after returning from that appointment, I'll correct myself on what states specifically and the exact ages, in case my memory failed me. (...again... :? )
 
Re: Study on Number of Non-Marital Partners & Marriage Stabi

No proof is immediately available to me for sharing, but I believe we need to be very careful in insisting that the legal age of consent be raised to 21. Who will enforce it? We are not able to enforce our current laws regarding sexual activity. We would only further the intensity of the problem by doing so. Young men and women today are only doing what comes naturally. What is missing is the moral restraint of personal responsibility and accountability to parents and to God. Increasing the legal age of consent for sexual activity or marriage will only increase law enforcements responsibility and involvement in our lives. Leave them to genuine crime and not pseudo-crime, artifically created by our laws. Holding people to responsibility for their children and the children responsible for their actions, along with our society, responsible for the actions we glorify in entertainment will solve the problem more effectively.
 
Re: Study on Number of Non-Marital Partners & Marriage Stabi

What is missing is the moral restraint of personal responsibility and accountability to parents and to God. Increasing the legal age of consent for sexual activity or marriage will only increase law enforcements responsibility and involvement in our lives. Leave them to genuine crime and not pseudo-crime, artifically created by our laws. Holding people to responsibility for their children and the children responsible for their actions, along with our society, responsible for the actions we glorify in entertainment will solve the problem more effectively.
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Good points. Pastor John, you sound like a stuck cd too....you keep stressing the personal responsibility aspect and I'm a stuck cd on people need to give themselves time to mature and see if they indeed do have the same calling, vision, and mission in life and if the person they are considering is truly of godly character.

You and I need to make cd album that is titled: "PRIT: Personal Responsibility Indicated through Time."

Thank we could sale enough? Our band's name PRIT and theme song :lol:

Ok on a serious note. I think we have to keep in mind two key things when dealing with Civil and Criminal Law. Having studied some in both fields the way i see it and the way my legal texts teach me this is the issue:

Civil Law boils down to this one essential principle: Do all that you have contracted or promised you will do.

Criminal Law boils down to this one essential principle: Do not damage another person's physical well being or property.

Therefore, I am very hesitant about adding more laws to the books. Visit the Libertarian political party's platform sometime Dr. George and see what you think about their views in particular on crime and personal sexual liberty. I'd love to get your take on it. Since you hold to the view we are not under per se the Mosaic Code I think you might find some material there that will be of good help or interest at least for your thoughts in that area.

As for the age of consent laws everyone struggles with what age is too young and what age is good. I find the best solution to this is to leave it as set with the natural times of physiological reproduction with parental consent tied to the laws yet in doing so keep it in the civil field of law and not on the criminal side so long as consent is working among those involved. If someone is underage and they give consent and yet the parent does not then the parent should (and does in most places) have the right to bring legal action (either through the civil or criminal process). I lean towards the idea of it being though an civil issue if the teens give consent because sometimes the parents leave their teens alone, virtually place the teens in such a position as what will lead to sexual activity, and then when it actually happens they freak out and go to see prosecution against one or the other, and it is often the one who is slightly older who gets the legal hammer brought down on them and they are then registered a sex offender for life.

A lot to think about.
 
Re: Study on Number of Non-Marital Partners & Marriage Stabi

castration is just a tad harsh IMO.
lets go back to;
Deuteronomy 22:28-29 NKJV (28) "If a man finds a young woman who is a virgin, who is not betrothed, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are found out, (29) then the man who lay with her shall give to the young woman's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife because he has humbled her; he shall not be permitted to divorce her all his days.
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Exodus gives us the kicker;
Exd 22:16 ¶ And if a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife.
Exd 22:17 If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins.
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if he cannot pay he is sold into servanthood (slavery) for the amount of time that it takes to pay off his debt.

how do ya like them apples? ;)
 
Re: Study on Number of Non-Marital Partners & Marriage Stabi

Visit the Libertarian political party's platform sometime Dr. George and see what you think about their views in particular on crime and personal sexual liberty.
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Actually, that earlier post that the age of consent should be 21 was a knee-jerk reaction. My political views tend toward Libertarian. I really think that Pastor John and you are both on the right track with your PRIT duet. :D

Sadly, personal responsibility is lacking in our society. It is the responsibility of the father to train his children:
Ephesians 6:4 NKJV And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.
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Too many of our kids have no father.

It may be tomorrow before I can post the official info I dug up during research for my dissertation that documents the lowered age-of-consent laws in the more liberal NE states. If someone else finds it on the Internet and posts it, that's OK. But I will get it up here by tomorrow, unless someone beats me to it.
 
Re: Study on Number of Non-Marital Partners & Marriage Stabi

I don't consider the consent age of 21 knee-jerk at all. My family has debated about it for years.
 
Re: Study on Number of Non-Marital Partners & Marriage Stabi

I thought I would bring in some historical stuff for our consideration as well regarding this issue. Here is an interesting quote from an article entitled "The Idea of Women's Equality and its Migration throughout American History."

Both men and women had great social pressure on them to marry. Young girls were often married by the age of 13 or 14 and if women weren’t married by the age of 25, it was socially humiliating. Marriage was mostly for economic benefits, not romantic situations. Widows were also pressured to get married as soon as possible. Even in some states, laws were proposed that would force widows to marry within 7 years after their husband’s death. Widows, however, were often married within a year if not sooner. Women were considered legally dead once they were married under common. Once married, they legally became one with their husbands. Married women had no control of their earnings, inheritance, property, and also could not appear in court as a witness nor vote. Their husbands, therefore, were responsible for all aspects of their wife including discipline. Widows were better off. They had control over their property, but could only receive up to one-third of her late husband’s property. A widow could also vote in some areas, but often widows were not aware of this fact or chose not to. Husbands could legally beat their wives. If a woman ran away from her husband, she was considered a thief because she was stealing the clothes she was wearing and herself. If a man murdered his wife, he would be hung. If a woman murdered her husband, she would be burned alive.
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Why I find this time period interesting in regards to age of consent is because of the heavy influence of the Puritans in early America.
 
Re: Study on Number of Non-Marital Partners & Marriage Stabi

New Hampshire: A female between the age of 13 and 17 years and a male between the age of 14 and 17 years can be married only with the permission of their parent (guardian) and a waiver.

I missed that one, but what indicates that this age has gotten lowered from a previously higher age? Maybe it's just an old law that hasn't been (but needs to be) revised. In our area there is an old law still on the books concerning driving your horse and buggy after dark without lighted lamps.
 
Re: Study on Number of Non-Marital Partners & Marriage Stabi

The research concerns the impact of sexual behaviour on marriage and other personal wellbeing indicators. No legislating an age of consent is going to change that. Changes in legislation often come after a change in public opinion. Well my guess is that the public opinion would be to stay the same.

Actually for those proposing raising the age of consent, have you considered you would outlaw a large number of marriages in the bible. Mary was estimated to be between 13 and 18. What about the war captives, they would have mostly been real young. *Forbidden topic alert - stop now*. I dont think the age is the real issue - the moral upbringing by the parents is, plus the message that church and peers send (even Christian peers). I mean, Lot was happy to live in Sodom, perhaps he got used to it after a while. But not Abram.

Anyway, my real interest in this study to do with the process of spouse selection and the likelihood of a marriage surviving. I really do not want a divorce. Now I know that we are forgiven, and the old becomes new; however we are still humans and some of those stats really scare me.

ylop
 
Re: Study on Number of Non-Marital Partners & Marriage Stabi

PS I imagine around half of our members would like to see a similar study on men!

Yes I sure would.

I'm remembering my parents here...they were married very young, neither had dated anyone previously. The marriage was horrible, beyond horrible, and ended in 15 years -14 years too late in my opinion. I've been married twice as long as my parents (both, both times combined). In fact, out of the 4 of us kids, my sisters and I all have stable marriages even with all our dating woes. My brother is another matter.

My husband and I both had some prior dating 'issues' if you will, but we decided that our job was to provide a stable home for our kids and not lose sight of that ever. I guess I think it's all about how much effort you are willing to put into your marriage and if you are both going the same direction. Again, I think most folks are too quick to choose a marriage partner without taking time to really get to know and understand them.

Anyway, that's what I think about that. I'll get to work on what I think about most of the men my co-workers talk about dating....
 
Re: Study on Number of Non-Marital Partners & Marriage Stabi

Ylop-

I know women used to be considered a commodity to buy, sell and trade just like any other property a man owned. I also understand that if modern societal norms were applied to past cultures that would be bad. That's why they weren't allowed to do that sort of thing on Star Treck. The Prime Directive didn't allow interference in a lesser developed civilization. Likewise, not all beliefs from an ancient culture would work now either. Guess we'll have to deal with the here and now.

I for one and glad some things have changed.
 
Re: Study on Number of Non-Marital Partners & Marriage Stabi

i understand what you are saying, donna.

but maybe in a culture (not in all of them) in which it was considered more normal for a girl to marry younger, there would be no non-marital partners to conduct such a survey on.
please understand, i am not talking about abusive, coercive situations.
i am guessing that if a girl actually wanted to marry at age 14 and start having the children that her body was designed to have, she would probably be coerced to not follow her dream.
just thinkin, not advocatin :D
 
Re: Study on Number of Non-Marital Partners & Marriage Stabi

steve said:
but maybe in a culture (not in all of them) in which it was considered more normal for a girl to marry younger, there would be no non-marital partners to conduct such a survey on.
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yes thats it.

Im my culture (Australia) is it normal for a person to commence sexual relations around 14-18 and possibly get married around 28-32. That is a lot of non-marital partners. Raising the age of consent is no magic wand. There are a lot of deeper issues here, starting with a rejection of God and the related concept of absolute values.

ylop
 
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