Historical and Contemporary Research on Marriage Formation and Maintenance

Marital bonds have long been of interest to scholars in the field of human development and family science. From the field’s inception, scholars have been concerned about the “fragility” of marriage, resulting in an influx of scholarship to understand the various individual, dyadic, and broader contexts that are associated with developing and maintaining a high-quality marriage. In this chapter, we summarize historical and contemporary trends within marital research, with an emphasis on how scholars have begun appreciating and capturing the broader contexts in which relationships develop. We conclude with a discussion of critical future directions for the field, including encouraging scholars to move beyond an emphasis on marriage when understanding intimate relationships across the life course.