Open Marriage Incidence - Growing or Shrinking?

Growing or Shrinking?

Following the 1972 publication of the bestselling book, "Open Marriage," by George and Nena O'Neill, individuals in the popular media expressed a belief that open marriages were on the rise. This belief turned out to be incorrect. Comparing data from the earlier Kinsey studies with his own data, Hunt concluded the incidence of extramarital sex had remained about the same for many years:

"In sharp contrast to most of our findings thus far, our data in this area suggest that in the past generation there has been almost no measurable increase in the number of American husbands who ever have extramarital experience, and only a limited increase in the number of American wives who do so. The overall incidence for our sample of married men of all ages appears to be basically unchanged from that of a generation ago. Only among men under 25 do we find any significant increase, but even that increase is of modest proportions. As for our sample of married women, there is no evidence of any overall increase in incidence compared to a generation ago. Among wives under 25, however, there is a very large increase, but even this has only brought the incidence of extramarital behavior for these young women close to--but not yet on par with--the incidence of extramarital behavior among under-25 husbands." (Hunt, 1974, page 254)

Hunt attributed the mistaken impression of increasing open marriages to a barrage of books, articles, and television shows dealing with the topic. He also notes that speculative comments about increases in open marriage would sometimes be repeated often enough that people cited them as evidence.

Nearly twenty years later, in a national study of sexual behavior, Janus and Janus likewise denied that open marriages were on the rise. In fact, they suggested the number of open marriages may have declined:

"Despite popularization in a book of that title in the early 1970s, open marriage has never become as prevalent as nonconsensual extramarital activities, and its popularity seems to be waning even further today." (Janus & Janus, 1993, pages 197-198)

Unfortunately, their comments must be taken as anecdotal, since they did not report statistical data to support a decline in open marriages.

Open marriage remains a controversial topic capable of generating much media interest. A large amount of media interest can mislead people into thinking the incidence of open marriage is on the rise. Conversely, recent media attention given to the marriage movement can mislead people into thinking the incidence of open marriage is declining. Weiss notes:

"Despite the vast attention given to these alternative lifestyles in the 1970s, and despite the more recent claims that Americans are 'returning to traditional models of monogamous marriage,' there is no scientific basis for concluding that these patterns increased in popularity earlier or that they have become less common in the 1980s and 1990s." (Weiss, 1997)

Investigators have found no reliable evidence that open marriage has either increased or decreased substantially over the last two generations. Further studies would be needed to assess increases or decreases in the incidence of open marriages.