Covenant marriage poses contrast to traditional unions

People in Louisiana, Arizona and Arkansas now have a second option in the kind of marriage they agree to. Covenant marriage, instituted in Louisiana in 1997, has some quite different aspects from traditional marriage.
Laura Sanchez, sociology and acting director of the Center for Family and Demographic Research, has been tracking the progress of the social experiment in that state since its inception.

“It’s really rare for there to be a social experiment of this massive proportion,” she said, so when the bill was passed by the Louisiana legislature, Sanchez, then an assistant professor at Tulane University specializing in family demography and public policy on marriage and family issues, jumped at the opportunity to explore it.
In their “Marriage Matters” study, Sanchez and her co-researchers James Wright of Central Florida University and Steven Nock of the University of Virginia have completed two rounds of interviews with couples who have chosen covenant marriage. They will conduct the third and last round of interviews this summer. Their work is supported by two National Science Foundation grants totaling more than a half-million dollars and a Smith Richardson grant for a quarter-million.

“Politically, it’s very interesting,” Sanchez said. “It raises several questions such as if the state will acknowledge that there can be other contracts for marriage beside the traditional one, does that open the door to other forms as well, such as gay marriage? And will states uphold covenant marriage if it is not a recognized form there?”
The sociologists’ research has already revealed some striking differences between the covenant marriage couples and couples in the control group, who are in traditional marriages, Sanchez said.

Covenant marriage seeks to strengthen the commitment of couples and reduce divorce rates through various requirements. Couples must undergo pre-marital counseling and promise to seek further counseling should they encounter trouble in their relationship. They must also fully disclose to one another their sexual and financial histories as well as any other pertinent family matters.

In covenant marriage, there is to be no divorce based on irreconcilable differences, but rather on “fault-based reasons” or after two years of earnest effort through counseling to remain married, Sanchez said.
This is a major departure from the norm of the past 20 years, since “society tends to believe in no-fault divorce,” she added. The study has shown, however, that in the few divorces that have occurred among covenant-married partners, the courts have not always upheld the procedures set out in the original contract, due to some confusion about the process.

“Covenant people want to reinvigorate marriage, and to provide stability for their kids,” Sanchez said. In focus groups conducted by the researchers, the covenant couples said they felt that by choosing this form of marriage they are making a statement to society, she said. They tend to believe that Americans have lost the ability to make a commitment to marriage and that this is eroding civil society.

“They feel that if children perceive that they can’t trust their parents’ commitment to one another, why should they trust any commitment—to the schools, to the police, or to any other institution?” Sanchez said.

“Another difference we found is that the families, co-workers and friends of couples in covenant marriages are far more supportive of the marriage,” Sanchez said, adding that some Louisiana churches are now requiring that their members who plan to marry choose the covenant form, although overall, only about 1 to 2 percent of marrying couples are choosing the covenant form.

Covenant couples are much more likely to have met in church and much less likely to have been previously married or to have lived together before marriage. While among the regularly married couples, about 40 percent had children from another marriage and 15-20 percent already had children together before being married, among the covenant marriage couples, only 20 percent had been married before and almost none had children together before they were wed.

“They are really reserving childbearing for marriage,” Sanchez said.

Covenant couples also differ from traditionally married couples in the survey in the way they relate to one another, tending to be happier together and much closer in their attitudes toward marriage, gender roles, division of labor and other issues. Strikingly absent from their conversation is any note of sarcasm or contempt, which has been identified in other research as toxic to marital happiness, Sanchez said. But surprisingly, she added, outwardly they look like other American couples—60 percent of the women work outside the home and do most of the housework.

This has suggested another line of questioning for the researchers’ upcoming interviews: how is it they see themselves as conservative traditionalists when the wives do not tend to be the traditional stay-at-home homemakers?

Sanchez said she and her co-researchers will be interested to see if covenant marriage, which is changing legal and political views of marriage, is the first step in a movement by the radical right toward a legislative agenda.