Is singleness a choice?

 

Hello again, singleness, is it a choice? According to Mouzon, Taylor, and Chatters (2020), a growing population of adults 55 and older are living outside the confines of marriage, and nearly one-third of Baby Boomers are unwed (Mouzon et al., 2020). There has been a significant shift in marriage and relationship trends since the 1950s such as: a) delaying marriage until older age, b) cohabitation, c) increases in remarital rates, and d) divorcing after 50 known as the “gray divorce revolution” (Mouzon et al., 2020, pg. 2). The article investigated the sociodemographic and health correlates of marriage, romantic involvement, and desire for a romantic union among a sample of older African Americans (Mouzon et al., 2020). Research has shown that African Americans have the lowest marriage rates and the widest gender gaps in marriage among other racial groups (Mouzon et al., 2020). The results indicate that four in 10 older African Americans are married or cohabitating, 11% are unmarried but romantically involved, 9.5% are unmarried and not romantically involved, but open to the idea of a romantic relationship, and 38% neither have nor desire romantic involvement (Mouzon et al., 2020). This suggests that singlehood in older African Americans (specifically women) may be by choice because they perceive more costs than benefits to initiating a romantic relationship and the number of potential mates significantly decreases as they age (Mouzon et al., 2020). Therefore, older individuals actively choose to be alone than become romantically involved with someone they perceive as a liability. This ideology goes against what we consider to be traditional, and to sum it up, the deinstitutionalization of marriage has revolutionized the way in which we mate; therefore, it is no surprise that the institution of marriage is no longer the dominant tradition of “American Life.” (Mouzon et al., 2020).

Mouzon, D. M., Taylor, R. J., & Chatters, L. M. (2020). Gender differences in marriage,   romantic involvement, and desire for romantic involvement among older African Americans. PloS One, 15(5), e0233836. https://doi  org.proxy1.ncu.edu/10.1371/journal.pone.0233836