The Irish electorate has rejected a proposal to formally change the definition of “family” in the constitution. Voters also rejected a second referendum on changing wording about a woman’s “duties in the home”.
The constitution of 1937 states that the family is founded on marriage and that the “State pledges itself to guard with special care the institution of Marriage.” The March 8 referendum proposed changing the constitution to recognise families “whether founded on marriage or on other durable relationships”.
The proposed changes, which were backed by all major political parties, opened a debate on what “the family” is and what it does. In an exit poll, voters cited a “lack of clarity” and “mistrust in government” as the reasons they voted against change in the referendums.
The change would have reflected the diversity of families in contemporary Ireland, and granted equal constitutional rights to single parents. By 2022, the last Irish census, 45% of all family units were defined as a married couple with children. Alternative family structures with children were dominated by cohabiting couples and single mothers.
The number of same-sex couples in the 2022 census was 10,393 – a 157% increase from 2011 (though that was from a low baseline). The total number of children in same-sex couples has increased to 1,853.
Opposition to this amendment focused on two main points, the definition of a “durable relationship” and the importance of marriage for families and society.
Like many other countries, concern is growing in Ireland around a decline in marriage. In the 1986 census almost 70% of all family units were married couples with children. The decline in marriage (and of religious marriage ceremonies) has been of particular concern to socially conservative groups. Such groups were vocal when it came to the referendum campaigns.
As fewer and more select groups of people opt to get married globally, it’s natural to wonder how this might affect future generations. But my research shows that marriage itself isn’t, on its own, necessarily the most important factor for family or child wellbeing.
Marriage isn’t everything
I’m a sociologist who studies family life, marriage and relationships. Since 2006, the national longitudinal Growing Up in Ireland study has allowed researchers to track changes in Irish families by following two large cohorts of children in Ireland as they age. My analysis of this data, with colleagues, shows that marriage isn’t the most important factor in determining whether children thrive.
Most (78%) children, for example, in the 1998 birth cohort were growing up in two-parent families, and most (98.5%) of these parents were the biological parents of the child.
Just over 4% of the children were living with cohabiting, unmarried parents, and most of these were never married. One-parent families were largely lone mother families with 9% defined as “never married” lone mothers and 8% as “previously married”. These previously-married mothers were mostly the results of marital separation rather than divorce or widowhood. Compared to the rest of Europe and indeed the world, Ireland’s divorce rate is remarkably low with the Irish preferring to remain separated rather than proceed to divorce and remarry (the remarriage rate is also low).
We found significant differences in both child outcomes and indicators of family wellbeing across the range of families. For example, children in never-married one-parent families were scoring almost ten percentage points less on a reading test at age nine when compared to children in married two-parent families.
That is not to be ignored and we are not downplaying or denying that these differences exist. But we are not comparing like with like.
Compared to married mothers, never married lone mothers were younger, less educated and less religious, and more likely to be born abroad. These lone mothers were also more likely to have smoked while pregnant, have had a chronic illness prior to the birth of their child and have experienced the imprisonment of a partner.
The children born to never married mothers tend on average to weigh less than those born to married mothers. They were more likely to be the first-born child and to be born in Ireland. Families differ for many reasons besides marriage.
Once we accounted for these factors, the difference in children’s reading scores between married and never-married one-parent families was reduced to just under 3%. In other words, we estimated that most of the difference was due to the socioeconomic resources available to families, rather than to marriage itself.
This is not to say that marriage and the stability it brings to children’s lives is not important, but rather to acknowledge that other differences, particularly related to socioeconomic resources and health, appear to matter more.
After the “no” vote, the Irish constitution continues to privilege the “married” family unit over others. Given what I’ve found in my research, and the changing demographics of families, I still hope that this will one day change.