ABSTRACT
This chapter zeros in on current relationship trends and how marriages and families have changed over time, highlighting the importance of love and falling out of romantic love (FORL) in today’s marriage.
While the TV sitcom Leave it to Beaver depicted the family ideal in the mid-twentieth century, the fabric from which a family is woven now contains many different threads. Family is no longer only defined through blood, marriage, adoption, or limited to the nuclear unit with a working dad and stay-at-home mom. The postmodern family has emerged. Despite these shifts, the importance of marriage and family is still trending.
Throughout this chapter there are interesting facts and a few surprises. For example, one might assume that skyrocketing divorce rates throughout the last 50 years confirm that contemporary marriages are unhappier than marriages of the past. Researchers have found this to be untrue.
Digging beneath the trends, it’s obvious that understanding FORL would be a great benefit to the stability of marriage and other long-term, non-marital relationships that provide important family functions.
