Carmichael G A
Demography. 1987 May;24(2):245-64.
Since the early 1970s Australia has experienced a pronounced trend to later and less universal marriage. This stands in sharp contrast to a marriage boom that began with the outbreak of World War II and lasted for three decades. The boom was the product of three sets of forces: those peculiar to wartime, those emerging in the early postwar period and creating a climate favorable to marriage, and those surfacing in the 1960s with the advent of oral contraception. Its reversal is attributed largely to less frequent resort to marriage when premaritally pregnant, the rise of cohabitation as a prelude or alternative to marriage, economic forces hindering family formation, and ideological change.
自20世纪70年代初以来，澳大利亚经历了一种明显的趋势，即结婚年龄推迟且结婚率不再那么普遍。这与始于第二次世界大战爆发并持续了三十年的结婚热潮形成了鲜明对比。这场热潮是三组力量作用的结果：战时特有的力量、战后初期出现并营造了有利于结婚的氛围的力量，以及随着口服避孕药在20世纪60年代出现而显现的力量。结婚热潮的逆转主要归因于婚前怀孕时结婚的频率降低、同居作为结婚前奏或替代方式的兴起、阻碍家庭形成的经济力量以及观念的变化。
